Italy has been ranked 18th in a special 'happiness' index drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD observed that although a country's GDP alone is not sufficient to measure well-being, given that wealth does not necessarily equal happiness, the five poorest countries on the list were at the bottom.
Mexico proved to be the exception and came out on top of the OECD index, which aside from wealth took into account employment, family relations, health, education opportunities and the quality of institutions.
Although Italy came in only 18th in this ranking, it was still above Spain, France and Japan. In its analysis, the OECD said that although free time was important for a nation's well-being, since it was "an asset which cannot be sold on the market" it could not be calculated into the index.
However, when a value was given to free time in relation to GDP then Luxembourg and Norway would find themselves at the top of the list and Italy would climb two notches to 16th place, the OECD added.
