What traffic? What unbridled construction? What excessive heat? What crowded public places? What chaos?

If you are feeling frustrated with too many of these you must be living in another country, because Malta has just been ranked the third most relaxing country in Europe in a poll.

International online gaming company Slot Tracker gave Malta a relaxation score of 7.8 out of 10, ranking it third after Iceland and Ireland. Believe it or not, Malta scored far better than countries like Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and Finland. According to the gaming company, the least three relaxing countries are the UK, Latvia and Slovenia.

The figures emerged from data collected last month after the company sought to find out which country’s residents have the highest odds of being relaxed and where travellers have the highest odds of feeling stress free.

Slot Tracker, however, only determined the relaxation score by analysing how many hiking trails, spas, yoga or pilates centres and national parks each country has for every 100,000 people. It did not take into consideration other factors such as population density, noise pollution, traffic congestion and construction activity.

Malta fared surprisingly well nonetheless though, with the gaming company concluding the country has the most spas per capita in Europe. According to this study, Malta has 21 per cent more spas than Monaco, over four times as many yoga and pilates centres as there are in Croatia – which ranked fourth in the list – and, wait for it, has 24 per cent more national parks than Norway!

“Renowned for its breath-taking coastline and historic sites, Malta is a must visit destination for those seeking a relaxing escape,” the company said.

It said it collected the data by compiling a list of all hiking trails from a hiking trail website and a list of national parks, spas and yoga and pilates centres “from a reputable hotel review site” and then analysing and comparing the numbers.

Other studies revealed Maltese people are far from relaxed

But figures from an international study published almost a year ago indicate the Maltese people are not exactly relaxed. The study revealed that the Maltese people are the angriest people in the EU while a large part of the population is also worried, stressed and in pain.

The study – carried out by US analytics company Gallup in more than 120 countries – found that a quarter of Maltese surveyed said they had experienced anger a day before being questioned.

This rate, which Malta shares with Poland, was the third highest in Europe after Turkey and North Macedonia and among the top 20 in the world.