A global survey has ranked Burundi as the most miserable state.

Behind Burundi is the war-ravaged Syria then Togo and Afghanistan.

Six other countries in sub-Saharan Africa — Benin, Rwanda, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania and Madagascar follow in that order, as the least happy of 157 countries.

The 2016 World Happiness Report seeks to quantify happiness as a means of making societies healthier and more efficient. The United Nations published the first such study in 2012.

That honour

Denmark, closely followed by Switzerland, was ranked the happiest country in the world, according to the global ranking released Wednesday.

As with last year, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden round out the top 10, making small or medium-sized countries in Western Europe seven of the top 10 happiest countries.

Denmark, which was ranked first in the 2012 and 2013 versions of the report but lost that honour to Switzerland in 2015, now reclaims its title as happiest country on earth.

Global recession

The report compared data from 2005 to 2015 showing that Greece, which suffered enormously from the global recession and now faces a crippling migrant crisis, had the highest drop in happiness.

The United States, where sharp polarisation has been exposed in the 2016 presidential election campaign, out-ranked several Western European countries to be 13th most happy nation, up two spots from last year.

Germany was 16th, Britain 23rd and France 32nd. A string of Middle Eastern kingdoms — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain — out-ranked Italy, which came in at number 50, and Japan, which took the 53rd spot.

Largest democracy

China, the world's most populous country, was ranked 83rd and India, the world's largest democracy, came in at 118.

The authors said six factors — GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption —explain almost three-quarters of the variation across different countries.

The report compared levels of happiness in 2005-2007, before the onset of the global recession, with 2013-2015, the most recent three-year period for which data from a Gallup World Poll is available.

Controversial election

Burundi has been in a crisis since April last year when the incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza declared his intention to run for a disputed third term.

He went ahead and won a controversial election and was currently serving amid resistance from disenchanted parties.

In East Africa, Kenya was ranked 122nd, followed by Uganda at 146th, Tanzania at 149 and Rwanda 152.