British Survey's Keys To Happiness: Youth, Marriage And Being Indian

The idea has been tossed around for millennia. Perhaps economic production isn't the best way to measure a country's progress. Perhaps there is a different and truer kind of wealth, the kind of wealth that most of us work and earn money in the hope of attaining: happiness.

Now several countries are taking the value of happiness seriously. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan introduced a Gross National Happiness survey in 1972. In 2009, the French government called for a similar index, and president Barack Obama said he "welcomed" such a plan in the U.S. Earlier this year, the United Nations passed a resolution to place "happiness" on the global agenda. And in the United Kingdom, the results of the first "Measuring National Well-Being Programme" have just been released.