This year's EU happiness index is out. Where does your country place?

The happiest and least happy nations in the European Union have been revealed - and the results might surprise you.

Austria, Poland and Romania make up the top three most happy EU nations.

At the other end of the scale, Germany is officially the second to bottom on the ranking, beaten to the depths of the poll only by Bulgaria.

In fact, Bulgaria was the only country of the 27 surveyed to come in with an overall score of less than six out of ten - the highest possible result - for overall life satisfaction in 2022.

Every year Eurostat, the bloc’s official statistics agency, measures how happy a sample of the population in each member state say they are with their lives.

That scale runs from zero - absolute dissatisfaction - to ten - meaning that things could not be going better.

It also asks how optimistic individuals questioned are about the future or, as the case may be, how pessimistic.

While one might assume the richer the country, the happier the people, it doesn’t seem to be the case across the board.

While Germany has one of the strongest economies among the 27 nations, the figures on happiness are stark.

In 2021, they came in with a score of 7.1. The newest data shows that it has fallen to just 6.5.

Although mere statistics can’t explain why people are so much less happy than the previous year, they do indicate an increasing darkening of the collective German mood.

Another German body, the Rheingold Institute based in Cologne uses polling mixed with in-depth interviews.

In a study published last week, they found that people “overwhelmed by anxiety” made up 20% and a further 9% were classified as “uninterested and withdrawn”.

Germany has been suffering with economic stagnation alongside unease relating to the war in Ukraine as