Norway: The world's happiest country

Scandinavian country surges from fourth place in last year's UN assessment all the way to top spot.

A chilly climate is not keeping Norway from basking in the glow of being named the world's happiest country on Monday.

The Scandinavian country surged from fourth place in last year's UN assessment all the way to the top spot, according to the World Happiness Report 2017.

Other top countries on the list included Nordic neighbours Denmark and Iceland, as well as Switzerland.

Among the 20 nations at the bottom of the rankings, five were in the Middle East and North Africa and five were in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Central African Republic, which returned to the surveyed group, came in dead last at 155, with Burundi and Tanzania doing only slightly better.

"But even if we top this statistic now we [must] continue to prioritise mental healthcare, to improve follow-up of children and young people because many are still struggling."

The report found that "all of the top four countries rank highly on all the main factors found to support happiness: caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance".

Rounding out the top 10 were Finland, in fifth place, the Netherlands (6), Canada (7), New Zealand (8) and Australia and Sweden tied for 9th.

All in the top 10 were affluent, developed nations, though the report said that money was not the only ingredient for happiness.

In fact, among the wealthier countries the differences in happiness levels had a lot to do with "differences in mental health, physical health and personal relationships: the biggest single source of misery is mental illness", the report said.

"Income differences matter more in poorer countries, but even their mental illness is a major source of misery," it added.