Scotland's Isle of Iona, a happy place to be Photo: 123RF
The creators of the smartphone app Mappiness hope to create a global map of happiness.
Sixty-six thousand people in the UK reported on their happiness level using the first version of the app and soon Mappiness 2 will launch worldwide.
So what did the creators find out so far?
People are generally much happier in nature, in the sun and far away from work, environmental economist George MacKerron says.
The app works by sending people a message asking them to rate their current state of happiness.
"It's kind of like getting a text. It just says how do you feel? And people send 30 seconds or so telling us that."
It also asks who they're with and what they're doing, from 1 of 40 activities.
"It's probably true but people are happier up mountains, but it might also be true that it's a Saturday and they're with their mates and the sun is shining and they're expecting a barbecue."
It then records their position via the GPS on their phone. Researchers later match that to the weather and the environment they were in at the time.
The effects of weather are pretty much as you'd guess - "rain and wind make people less happy, sun makes people a bit happier".
When temperatures hit 25 degrees Celsius there was a significant mood lift, MacKerron says.
"Suddenly people can go to the beach, they can get the barbecue out, they can do all kinds of things that you only get to do a couple of times a year in the UK."
The results so far showed that rural areas are generally happier places to be than urban areas.
In the UK, the English town of Slough (where The Office was set) is one of the worst places to be for happiness and the far north Scottish islands such as Hebrides are the best.
The natural environment, coastline, tight-knight communities and an abundance of whiskey distilleries are factors in this, MacKerron wagers.
In the next six months, Mappiness 2 will launch worldwide and on Android and iPhone.
It will have a particular focus on the workplace – "the place where people are less happy and where they spend an awful lot of time", MacKerron says.
Findings from the first version of the app revealed that any work-related activity seemed to make people less happy, second only to being ill in bed.
The highest rates of happiness (twice as much as any other) accompanied the activity labelled 'Intimacy / making love'.
