Finding your happy place in the City of Smiles

Year after year Denmark features at or near the top of the World Happiness Report, a survey focusing on wellbeing data from over 140 countries.

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Last year it came second after Finland, while the UK hit not-so-jolly 23rd. Why is that? What is it about an equally cool, windy and northerly country that can see its population feeling so much more happy and content?

As reported in these pages last weekend, I was in the northerly Skagen area finding out about its Newlyn-like artists (one of whom is about to have a large retrospective exhibition in London this autumn) - so I thought I'd discover more about the happiness question and share my findings with readers. Not that Westcountry folk need a lot of cheering up, because we live in one of the most wonderful regions in all of Europe - but my cheerful mission did give me an excuse to visit somewhere known as the City of Smiles.

And was Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, really a zone of smiling faces? Did I feel happy there and did I pick up on the joyous vibe?

Yes to all those questions. One hundred percent. I'd say it was one of the happiest places I've ever visited. Indeed, in a social media post, I even went so far as to claim I wouldn't mind living there - highly unusual for me as normally I'd never dream of living in any city.

Okay, so there were a number of contributing factors to our jolliness. For a start, we arrived recently during a heatwave on a Friday evening and went immediately out for dinner, and were duly stunned by the teeming numbers of very happy looking people filling this northern Danish town's many intricate streets to the brim.

Which I guess you could say about any city in Europe on a Friday evening in a heatwave. But in Aarhus, even if you closed your eyes you knew you were somewhere special and upbeat.

No loud music was pounding from the many bars and restaurants and there was very little traffic noise - all you could hear was the wonderful massed sound of human chatter and laughter.