Take a sweater or something warm if you visit the world’s happiest countries. The top five — including Canada — are all snowy, wintry nations.

Only the slightest of margins separates Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada in the top ranks of the United Nations’ World Happiness Report released Thursday.

All of the happiest countries are wealthy, although only three of the top 10 overlap with the 10 wealthiest countries based on gross domestic product per capita — Switzerland, Norway and Australia.

That is not surprising, since the aim of the Happiness Report is to provide a counter-balance — the idea behind the report is that well-being is determined by more than just wealth, and that improving life satisfaction or happiness ought to be a consideration in public policy-making.

But aside from the fun provided by seeing which countries are happier than others — and yes, the United States has yet to crack the top 10 and remains just below Mexico at number 15 — this year’s report provides new evidence supporting the claim that happiness matters.

Iceland was slammed during the 2008 global recession. Its banking system collapsed, the stock market plunged by more than 90 per cent, and the country was on the verge of bankruptcy. Unemployment tripled, pensions and wages were cut.

Yet, despite all that, Icelanders rated their life satisfaction higher after the recession than before. That increased happiness bounced the country from 9th place to second on the UN’s happiness ranking.

The percentage of Icelanders who report that they have someone to count on in times of crisis is the highest in the world.

Ireland ranks second only to Iceland in that category. It too was hard hit by the recession, yet happiness remained constant along with the country’s 18th-place ranking.

By contrast, the economies of Greece, Italy and Spain have also tanked in recent years, and all three recorded a significant drop in happiness — losses “greater than could be explained by macroeconomic factors,” according to the report.

Greece’s ranking dropped to 102 from 70. The average Greek’s happiness rating on a scale of zero to 10 dropped to 4.8 from 5.4 before the recession. In the happiness rankings, Greece now rates below countries such as Laos, Mongolia and Swaziland.

The economic crisis provided “a test of the underlying social fabric,” the report says in a chapter co-written by Vancouver economist John Helliwell.

“If the fabric is sufficiently strong, then the crisis may even lead to a higher subjective well-being, in part by giving people a chance to work together towards good purpose and to realize and appreciate the strength of their mutual social support; and in part because the crisis will be better handled.”

In an interview, Helliwell — a co-editor of the Happiness Report as well as co-author of the Statistics Canada report released earlier this week that ranked the happiness of Canadian cities and regions — noted that similar gains in happiness were recorded in Calgary after the floods of 2013, and after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Canada’s rank rose to fifth from sixth, despite the recent recession. Other countries that felt the effects of the recession more deeply dropped, says Helliwell. Canada’s happiness score of 7.477 was virtually unchanged from the previous report.

Among the key findings is that if unhappy people are trained to cultivate mindfulness, kindness and generosity, their brain’s circuits can be rewired. It’s something that policy makers might keep in mind when they try to figure out how to deal with criminals or even terrorists.

Policy makers are also advised to boost spending on more evidence-based treatment for children with mental-health problems. Making treatments more widely available, the report suggests, “would generate huge savings through improved educational performance, reduced youth offending and, later on, improved earnings and employment, and better parenting of the next generation.”

The overall message of the report is that the well-being of countries depends on individuals being able to make decisions for the common good — that the best societies are those where individuals act honestly and benevolently, and where they trust that others are as well.

It’s an old message in a new package that uses science and economics instead of religion and philosophy to appeal to the better, happier angels within us.

dbramham@vancouversun.com

Ranking of Happiness 2012-2014 (with previous rank)

Happiest 10

Switzerland (3)

Iceland (9)

Denmark (1)

Norway (2)

Canada (6)

Finland (7)

Netherlands (4)

Sweden (5)

New Zealand (13)

Australia (10)

Unhappiest 10 of 156

156. Togo (156)

155. Burundi (153)

154. Syria (148)

153. Benin (155)

152. Rwanda (152)

151. Afghanistan (143)

150. Burkina Faso (131)

149. Ivory Coast (n/a)

148. Guinea (150)

147. Chad (141)

World’s Richest Countries by GDP per capita

1. Qatar

2. Luxembourg

3. Singapore

4. Norway

5. Brunei Darussalam

6. Hong Kong

7. United States

8. United Arab Emirates

9. Switzerland

10. Australia

===

Click here to report a typo or visit vancouversun.com/typo.

Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestory