Malta is the happiest place on earth, while Zimbabwe and Ukraine seem to be the most unhappy, according to an annual World Database of Happiness compiled by Rotterdam Erasmus University’s Professor Ruut Veenhoven.

Seventy-four per cent of Maltese people said they are happy, with the rate in Denmark, Switzerland and Colombia being 73 per cent.

Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands are quite happy places, as well, and Canada, Finland and Ghana end the world’s top ten, with 63 per cent of their people happy.

Money is not the main reason for happiness, the professor said. For instance, the United States ranks 16th on the world happiness list, after Guatemala and Uruguay. The leading European nations, the United Kingdom and Germany, rank 21st and 22nd.

Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Moldova and Ukraine are at the bottom of the list, with no more than 20 per cent of their citizens happy.