The bright constellation

(Source)

 

Despite having food, wine, and scenery that are the envy of the world, a new study has revealed the French to be the most downbeat people on the planet.

The annual survey, carried out by the polling institute BVA-Gallup for the daily newspaper Le Parisien, spoke to the residents of 51 countries across all five continents to measure levels of optimism and pessimism. The survey found that wealth has little to do with overall happiness, with the gloomiest people found in Europe while the happiest were mostly in Africa and Asia.

The unhappiest countries were in Europe, with France at the top, receiving a negative score of 79. (Source)

 

Iceland is the cleanest country in the world. According to researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities, the Nordic island ranks first out of 163 countries on their Environmental Performance Index.

Researchers ranked countries based on 25 indicators, including water and air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and the impact of the environment on the health of the population. A score of 100 is excellent. Sierra Leone ranks at the bottom of the list with a score of 32. The U.S. ranks in the middle of the pack with 63.5. Iceland took top honors with a score of 93.5 thanks to ample clean water, lots of protected nature areas, good national health care, and a plenitude of usually clean geothermal power. (Source)

 

The Economist created an index showing the countries where women are most likely to be treated equally at work based on the labor-force participation rate, the wage gap, the proportion of women in senior jobs, and the cost of child care compared to wages, among other factors. New Zealand comes out on top, and other notorious lady-paradises such as Finland and Sweden also score highly. The countries where working women have it worst are South Korea and Japan, largely because so few women are in top jobs. The U.S. is roughly in the middle of the pack.

The biggest gender gaps in employment, though, are in Ecuador and Saudi Arabia. (Source)

 

The concept of peace is difficult to define – and even more difficult to measure. However, since 2006 the Global Peace Index has defined peace as the "absence of violence" and has sought to determine what cultural attributes and institutions are associated with states of peace. The most recent ranking in 2012 has Iceland as the most peaceful country, followed by Denmark and New Zealand. At the other end of the spectrum, Somalia is considered the least peaceful country, followed by Afghanistan and Sudan. (Source)

 

Based on a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 24/7 Wall St. compiled a list of the 10 countries with the highest proportion of college-educated adult residents. Topping the chart is Canada — the only nation in the world where more than half of its residents can proudly hang college degrees on their walls. In 2010, 51% of the population had completed a tertiary education, which takes into account both undergraduate and graduate degrees

Snagging the number two most-educated spot was Israel, which trailed Canada by 5%. Japan, the U.S., New Zealand, and South Korea all ranked, with more than 40% of their citizens having a higher-education degree. (Source)

 

When you're traveling, some countries just don't like you, or at least it can certainly feel that way. A new report released in March 2013 by the World Economic Forum has ranked which countries roll out the welcome mat to travelers, and which give the cold shoulder.

Among the extensive analyses, one of the most interesting rankings was how welcome tourists are in each country. So, what is the world's most unfriendly country according to the data?

Bolivia took the dubious honor, scoring a 4.1 out of seven on a scale of "very unwelcome" (0) to "very welcome" (7). Venezuela and the Russian Federation were next.

Which countries are the most welcoming to foreigners? That would be Iceland, New Zealand, and Morocco. (Source)

 

Forbes Magazine recently created and published a list of the richest countries in the world. In the ranking of the World's Top 10 Richest Countries as of October 2012, Qatar came in first, topping Luxembourg which was positioned second. Qatar is an oil rich country with an abundance of natural resources, such as natural gas.