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You'd be perfectly justified in asking: According to whom? And the answer shouldn't faze you at all: North Korea. China's Chaoxian.com.cn reports that North Korea's Chosun Central TV recently released the result of a ‘Happiness Index (Gross National Happiness) of each nation' survey, which was conducted in—wait for it!—North Korea. The happiest nation is China, and the others in the top five are Cuba, Venezuela and Iran; South Korea is ranked at 152. Disconsolate at dead bottom is the US, at 203. These rankings have some weak competition from Forbes' Gallup World Poll (Denmark: 1; China: 125; US: 14), Bloomberg (Denmark: 1; China: 82; US: 23) and Financial Jesus (Denmark: 1; China: 44; US: 17). Not that these are indisputable, either: The Happiness Show places Puerto Rico at 1, China at 45 and the US at 15. And the Happy Planet Index has Costa Rica leading, China at 20 and the US at 114. North Korea: What North Korea?
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