"Forbes" recently released a list of 'The Happiest Countries in the World.' It's based on that Gallup World Poll, which surveyed thousands of people in 155 countries between 2005 and 2009.

They asked people to rate their well-being, then assigned percentages to the number of people in each country who were, quote, "thriving" . . . "struggling" . . . or "suffering."

Then they broke it down into four regions: The Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and picked the three happiest countries in each region.

And no, the U.S. wasn't listed!!

(At this point, I'd be surprised if we WERE listed.)

Here's the **most random list** of happiest countries ever, starting with The Americas:

#1.) Costa Rica

#2.) Canada

#3.) Panama

Europe:

#1.) Denmark

#2.) Finland

#3.) Norway

Africa:

#1.) Malawi

#2.) Libya (???)

#3.) Botswana

Asia:

#1.) New Zealand

#2.) Israel

#3.) Australia

(FORBES.com)