British are happier than French, Germans

London: Here's something to be cheery about — the British are happier than the French, according to a survey of well-being across Europe.

It found that one in five Britons can be described as ‘flourishing', six per cent more than in France.

The UK even came in ahead of Germany, though only by a fraction of a per cent.

But this still leaves it far behind the happiest country in the continent — Denmark, where four in ten have high levels of well-being.

The Cambridge University study found that no country in Europe had a majority happy population.

The most miserable countries, according to the research, were Portugal and Russia, with fewer than one in ten residents described as ‘flourishing'.

The findings were based on answers given by 43,000 people in 22 countries to a survey carried out in 2006 and 2007 — before the recession and the Eurozone crisis.

It asked about 10 areas of life, such as competence, optimism and self-esteem, thought to constitute positive well-being, to identify if those surveyed were "flourishing".

The residents of Northern European countries were reckoned to be the happiest, followed by those in Southern Europe, with Eastern Europeans the least cheerful.

A number of the study's conclusions appeared to confirm stereotypes. The five nations ranked highest for competence, for example, were Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Germany. And Russians were bottom for optimism.

The report said: "Some nations showed very marked variability in their rankings."