Through the Volokh Conspiracy law blog, I came across this chart rating the happiness of the citizens of various countries throughout the world. Happiest was Denmark, followed by Puerto Rico. Unhappiest were Zimbabwe and Armenia. The US shows up in 16th place and Saudi Arabia at 26th. The next-happiest nation in the Middle East is Israel (45th), then Jordan (57th). The list is not complete, however: no other Gulf States are included, nor is Syria, Sudan, or Libya, for example.

Still, it doesn’t seem that the Kingdom is roiled by dissatisfaction these days…

As to the validity of the study, well, you take your chances. There’s no mention of how the surveys were taken and there are a few, shall we call them ‘inconsistencies’? Puerto Rico, for instance, is not actually a country and East Germany stopped being a country a few years ago, but still, it’s amusing.

http://umich.edu/news/happy_08/HappyChart.jpg

[Hint: If the chart shows up too small to read, try clicking on it!]