Spain is one of the happiest countries in the world, according to a new survey

Feeling happy? Spain is 16th in the world ranking of countries where people live happier longer, according to the latest update of the World Database of Happiness (WDB Hap)

The countries' quality of life is measured using an indicator of 'Years of Happy Life', developed by the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (Holland). This indicator combines life assessment average and s life expectancy averages, and shows how many years and how happy an average citizen lives in a certain country. The latest ranking includes 148 countries and covers more than 95% of the world population. It is possible to draw interesting conclusions from the information included. The inhabitants of Costa Rica hold the first position of this classification, with an average of 66.7 happy years of life, followed by Icelanders (with 66.4 years) and Danish (65 'happy' years).

Spain has an average of 58.8 happy years of life, and beats neighbours France (52.8) and Portugal (44.6).

Not surprisingly Zimbabwe came last with only 12.5 happy years of life.