Malta is not the world's happiest country, but it does not fare badly, according to Gallup researchers who interviewed thousands of people in 155 countries. Forbes.com reports said that the researchers asked their respondents about satisfaction with their lives, and ranked their answers using a "life evaluation" score from 1 to 10. Then they asked questions about how each subject had felt the previous day.

Those answers allowed researchers to score their "daily experiences"--things like whether they felt well-rested, respected, free of pain and intellectually engaged. Subjects that reported high scores were considered "thriving."

Malta ranked 38th,with Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands taking the first four places, in that order. Costa Rica is sixth The US is 14th, the UK 17th, Turkmenistan 18th, Cyprus and Luxembourg tied at 28th while Malta was tied with Guatemala, two places ahead of Italy and four ahead of the Czech Republic.

Togo came in last.

The research does have its quirks. The Palestinian Authority is placed before Hungary even though 70 per cent of the population is struggling.

In Malta, 40% of respondents were listed as thriving, but 48% were 'struggling' and 12% were 'suffering'. The daily experience was ranked 6.6. compared to 7.9 for Denmark.

Forbes said that income undoubtedly influenced happiness, and the top countries were very well off.

But day-to-day happiness was more likely to be associated with how well one's psychological and social needs were being met, and that was harder to achieve with a pay cheque.

For example Costa Rica, the sixth-happiest country in the world, and the happiest country in the Americas, beat out richer countries like the United States because social networks in Costa Rica were tight, allowing individuals to feel happy with their lot, regardless of financial success.