Britain trails behind in 'happiness league'

Britons are getting unhappier, with falling trust in institutions, such as the police and government, to blame, a Europe-wide study has suggested.

The UK was ranked only the ninth happiest country out of 15 EU nations and finished tenth in a parallel survey of life satisfaction levels.

Denmark, Finland and the Irish were the happiest people while Italy finished bottom just behind Portugal and Greece.

Other trends noted were that women appeared to be happier than men while the study claimed that where trust in the government was lacking, in countries such as Italy, even the well-off tended to be unhappy.

Happiness top five

1.Denmark
2.Finland
3.Ireland
4.Sweden
5.Netherlands

Unhappiness top five

1.Italy
2.Portugal
3.Greece
4.Germany
5. France