Africa's 'happiest' countries revealed

What makes a country happy? Is it wealth, freedom or a trustworthy government?

According to the latest World Happiness Report, compiled by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations, all these factors are key, and measuring happiness is fast becoming a good measure of social progress.

Six key factors were measured to establish a global ranking of the happiest countries; GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

Only five African countries rank among the top 100, and eight of the last ten overall are in Sub-Saharan Africa, having ranked very low on some of the key factors that lead to happiness.

Here are the first ten African countries as they appear on the global list.

Ranking number 38 on the global list of the happiest countries in the world is Algeria, North Africa. GDP per capita played a big role in this ranking, followed by social support.

People in Algeria are also quite equal in terms of happiness, out of 147 countries Algeria came in at number 47 on the list showing standard deviation of happiness, where one is the most equal and 147 is the least.