Australia: A Happy Place! Essay example -- Australia Essays

Australia conjures up thoughts in one’s head of a country, and a continent, where kangaroos and koalas roam freely, and where people are generally laid-back. This assumption of happiness of the Australian people is even supported by the World Database of Happiness Rank Report 2014, which ranks Australia’s happiness at a 7.3 out of 10, an extremely high number. One can only wonder, then, what does make Australia one of the happiest countries on Earth? Many factors can go into deciding what exactly makes the citizens of a country the happiest. In Australia’s case, however, location, size, and other various points help to create a country that is almost perfectly content. Australia is located in the Southern Hemisphere in the Pacific Ocean. Although Australia is near Indonesia and New Zealand, this continent is basically stranded in the middle of the ocean, with no other continents close. This large amount of space in between Australia and the other countries can lead one to believe that the location has a large amount to do with Australia’s happiness rating. Countries that are extremely close together, such as Zimbabwe, Ukraine, and Jordan, have a much lower happiness rating, according to the World Database of Happiness. Australia is not landlocked, which always has a great deal to do with the citizens’ happiness, seeing as though the majority of the population lives on the eastern and southeastern coast of Australia (â€Å"Australia,† n.d.). Weather is another factor that can greatly affect the moods of people all around the world. Australia’s weather varies greatly around the country, from tropical to Mediterranean an d even desert-like climates (â€Å"Australia-Geography and Climate,† n.d.). In the southeastern part, though, ... .... Retrieved October 9, 2011, from http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States List of United States cities by population. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population Peen J., Schoevers R.A., Beekman A.T., Dekker J. (2009, July 13). The current status of urban-rural differences in psychiatric disorders. Retrieved from National Center for Biotechnology Information website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19624573 Still healthy, wealthy and wise – but dropping in productivity. (2011). Retrieved from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/5BD0CF73B112325CCA25792000141D51?Opendocument Tiffen, R., & Gittins, R. (2009). How Australia compares (2nd edition). Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press.