a new study has revealed the best places in the world to live, with paraguay residents saying they are the happiest for the first time, the entire top ten of gallup's positive experience index is from latin america the two countries with the worst happiness ratings were both in africa, with sudan scoring right below tunisia, the site of a terrorist attack earlier this week the united states tied for 15th with a index score of 79, eight higher than the global mean of 71 scroll down for video  latin american countries dominated the upper echelons of gallup's positive experience index above, colombian girls smile outside their home in buenaventura, despite widespread violence in the city  the united kingdom tied for 43rd with six other counties, receiving a score of 75 the gallup study polled adults in 143 countries and asked them a series of questions about the previous day including: did you feel well rested? did you feel respected all day? did you smile or laugh a lot? did you learn something or do something interesting? and did you feel enjoyment? more than 70% of people throughout the world said they experienced  enjoyment, respect, rest, and smiles the day before respondents were also asked about their experience of positive and negative emotions paraguay also claimed the top spot last year, though its score has moved up from 87 to 89 colombia, whose contestant also won miss universe 2014 earlier this year, was ranked second none of the latin american countries that rank the happiest have gross domestic products in the top 25, according to the world bank the united states (pictured) was the happiest country with a top 10 gross domestic product, tying for 15th with ten other countries above, teenagers in binghampton, new york  the united kingdom tied for 43rd with a number of other countries it scored two points higher this year than last above, racegoers at the cheltenham festival smile as they cheer on their horses  top 10 economies ranged in rank from 15th, the us, to 85th, russia researchers say the results stem from the continent's culture, which tends to focus on the positive little has changed at the top of the chart, with only denmark falling out of the 10 happiest countries countries in the middle east, north africa and eastern europe see generally lower scores nations formed after the fall of the soviet union generally show less positive as well as less negative emotions gallup did not include data for syria and several gulf cooperation council countries such as the united arab emirates, which was ranked 15th last year with a score of 79 syria tallied the lowest ever positive emotion score last year with 36 the worldwide positive experience indicator has remained relatively constant, hovering around 70 interviews were conducted through various methods, including face to face interviews and by telephone tunisia, which ranked second from the bottom on the happiness list, was struck by a terrorist attack earlier this week  1 paraguay 89  2 colombia 84  2 ecuador 84  2 guatemala 84  5 honduras 82  5 panama 82  5 venezuela 82  8 costa rica 81  8 el salvador 81  8 nicaragua 81  11 philippines 80  11 singapore 80  11 switzerland 80  11 uruguay 80  15 argentina 79  15 bhutan 79  15 canada 79  15 chile 79  15 dominican republic 79  15 netherlands 79  15 new zealand 79  15 norway 79  15 rwanda 79  15 sweden 79  15 usa 79  26 denmark 78  26 finland 78  26 indonesia 78  26 luxembourg 78  36 puerto rico 78  26 taiwan 78  26 uzbekistan 78  33 bolivia 77  33 germany 77  33 kenya 77  36 belgium 76  36 france 76  36 ireland 76  36 mauritius 76  36 mexico 76  36 nigeria 76  36 sri lanka 76  43 australia 75  43 austria 75  43 china 75  43 peru 75  43 south africa 75  43 thailand 75  43 united kingdom 75  50 brazil 74  50 mauritania 74  50 namibia 74  50 senegal 74  50 spain 74  55 belize 73  55 mali 73  57 portugal 72  57 saudi arabia 72  57 tanzania 72  60 malaysia 71  60 vietnam 71  62 ghana 70  62 india 70  62 italy 70  62 jamaica 70  62 poland 70  67 cambodia 69  67 malawi 69  67 malta 69  67 sierra leone 69  71 guinea 68  71 myanmar 68  71 slovenia 68  71 zimbabwe 68  75 botswana 67  75 cyprus 67  75 greece 67  75 hong kong 67  75 jordan 67  75 kyrgyzstan 67  75 madagascar 67  75 zambia 67  83 japan 66  83 niger 66  85 ivory coast 65  85 kazakhstan 65  85 russia 65  85 slovakia 65  85 turkmenistan 65  90 algeria 64  90 angola 64  90 burkina faso 64  90 cameroon 64  90 estonia 64  90 latvia 64  90 macedonia 64  90 northern cyprus 64  90 tajikistan 64  90 uganda 64  100 albania 63  100 burundi 63  102 czech republic 62  102 lebanon 62  104 chad 61  104 haiti 61  104 hungary 61  104 iran 61  104 israel 61  104 mongolia 61  110 benin 60  110 bulgaria 60  110 congo (brazzaville) 60  110 ethiopia 60  110 iraq 60  110 montenegro 60  110 romania 60  110 yemen 60  118 armenia 59  118 gabon 59  118 palestinian territories 59  118 south korea 59  122 belarus 58  122 egypt 58  122 kosovo 58  122 togo 58  126 congo (kinshasa) 57  126 croatia 57  126 liberia 57  126 pakistan 57  130 azerbaijan 56  130 moldova 56  130 south sudan 56  130 ukraine 56  134 afghanistan 55  134 bosnia & herzegovina 55  134 georgia 55  134 lithuania 55  134 nepal 55  139 bangladesh 54  139 serbia 54  139 turkey 54  142 tunisia 52  143 sudan 47 
latin central american sudan tunisia syria united states 15th uk
latin and central american countries repeated domination of the top 10 . sudan and tunisia placed at the bottom, though there was no data for syria . united states ranked 15th with score of 79, uk just above world average 71 