Scandinavians may spend a lot of the winter in darkness but they are the happiest people in Europe, according to a study released this month.

Countries like Denmark and Finland scored highest on the study of happiness in Europe carried out by Cambridge University, which also found that the sunny southern countries of Italy, Portugal and Greece got the least joy out of life.

The survey entitled: "No Man is an Island" revealed that countries where people enjoy time with friends and family, have trust in government and national institutions were more likely to be happy than those living in a sunny climate.

The study rated respondents on their overall sense of happiness and life satisfaction on a scale of one to 10.

Danes -- who expressed a high level of trust in their politicians and public institutions -- came top of the field at 8.3. Italians -- who reported lower levels of satisfaction with their national quality of government -- came last at 6.49.

"Italy, Greece, Portugal, Germany and France report the lowest levels of happiness whereas the Scandinavian Countries, Netherlands and Luxembourg report the highest," the study said.

Although Europeans are generally four times wealthier than their fathers and grandfathers, their levels of happiness are either equal to or lower than 40 years ago.

The study also looked at factors contributing to happiness within countries and surprisingly found that an interest in politics actually increased happiness.

Lead researcher Luisa Corrado said tax cuts and throwing money at social problems appeared to have no effect on the happiness of citizens when compared with government policies which strengthened and supported wider social networks.

"People are less naive than one would expect, politicians need to tailor their policies and target specific problems in specific areas," she said.

    據本月公布的一項調查表明，雖然斯堪的納維亞人總是生活在漫長而黑暗的冬季，但他們是歐洲最快樂的人。

    此項由劍橋大學開展的有關歐洲人快樂感的調查顯示，丹麥、芬蘭等國家的快樂感最高；而陽光充足的南歐國家意大利、葡萄牙和希臘的快樂感卻最低。

    這項名為“誰都不是一座島”的調查發現，與朋友相處得好、家庭幸福、信任政府和國家機關的國民要比那些生活在陽光明媚的國家的人容易快樂。

    這項調查對受訪者的總體快樂感和生活滿意度進行打分，分值范圍為1至10分。

    其中，丹麥人對國家的執政者和公共機構表示了高度的信任，評分為8.3分，居于榜首；而意大利人則對政府的執政能力嚴重不滿，得分6.49，排在最後。

    據調查報告總結：“意大利、希臘、葡萄牙、德國和法國的國民快樂感最低，而荷蘭、盧森堡等斯堪的納維亞地區的人們快樂感最強。”

    盡管歐洲人的富裕程度總體上是他們的父輩和祖父輩的四倍，但他們的快樂感卻與40年前的人差不多，甚至更低。

    該調查還對影響國民快樂感的因素進行了探究，結果發現對政治的興趣竟然能夠提升快樂感。

    研究小組負責人路易莎·科拉多說，與能夠鞏固和支撐更為廣闊的社會聯係的政府政策相比，稅收的減免和為社會問題捐資對國民的快樂感並沒有什麼影響。

    她說：“國民並非想象中的那麼幼稚天真，從政者應針對具體領域的具體問題制定出相應的政策。”姍姍