How the dismal science, economics, can mix with happiness. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. The standard gross domestic product reading on economic growth measures money-changing hands, whether it's happy because someone bought your flowers or sad because you paid to set a broken bone. If you want to measure well-being, there's an

annual ranking of happiness from Oxford University researchers and pollsters at Gallup.

On the new one, the United States, the world's biggest economy, is missing from the top 20,

although our neighbor Mexico is in the top 10. Marketplace's Nova Safo is here with the list.

That's right, David. Mexico is number 10. The United States, not so good. 24th on the list.

These rankings derive from one-question pollsters ask people all around the world.

They were asked to describe their happiness in their lives on a scale of 1 to 10.

Now, the bad news is that Western industrialized countries in general are now less happy

than they were 15 to 20 years ago.

And for the U.S., one of the biggest problems the researchers identified is a growing

sense of isolation, especially among young people.

Even something as simple as sharing meals, they say Americans are doing far less of that,

and that's part of the problem. In Mexico, the opposite. Larger households are contributing to a

greater sense of satisfaction. And David, do you care to take a guess as to which country

came in at number one on the happiness rankings? If this question ever comes up, always guess

a Nordic country. Works

every time. The answer at number one. Very good guess. Finland, it's for the eighth year in the row,

number one. Other Nordic countries are basically two, three, and four, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden.

Now, the good news for the United States is that it did rank high in some specific

happiness measures, donating, volunteering, and helping a stranger, all of which researchers say

contribute to a sense of happiness. Still, they also say that the very reason Americans do a lot of

those things, David, is because there's so much neat. So overall, a mixed bag for the U.S.

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