Business & Finance Club - Manama : Bahrain has been ranked among the top “most thriving” countries in the Middle East, according to a new study.

The 'Island of Smiles' ranked 48th out of 155 countries around the world in the Gallup Global Well-being report, which took four years to compile.

Bahrain was placed among the top five along with the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. The study, which took place between 2005 and last year, found 32 per cent of people in Bahrain were thriving.

However, it also found that 45 per cent were struggling and 23 per cent were suffering - although non-Arab expats were not included in the survey of around 1,000 adults aged over 15.

In fact, Bahrain had one of the biggest percentages of people suffering in the Middle East and was on a par with Pakistan and Romania in those stakes.

Neighbouring countries Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar all had suffering percentages of five or lower, while Saudi Arabia - which was ranked 58th in the thriving stakes - only had a suffering percentage of three.

'Gallup's global well-being metrics are the first comprehensive measure of the behavioural economics of gross national well-being, which lays the foundation for all other measures of a country's economic strength,' says the report.

Only Israel, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar finished above Bahrain in the Middle East thriving stakes, finishing eighth, 20th, 23rd and 35th respectively.

In Israel, 62 per cent of those surveyed were thriving compared with 51 per cent in the UAE, 47 per cent in Kuwait and 41 per cent in Qatar.

The report found that people in Syria - which ranked 115 overall - were the worst off in the region, with just 10 per cent thriving, 66 per cent struggling and 24 per cent suffering.

It was just behind Iraq at 110 with 11 per cent of people thriving, 71 per cent struggling and 18 per cent suffering.

Meanwhile, Palestine came in at 96 with 14 per cent of people thriving, 70 per cent struggling and 15 per cent suffering.

The Gallup Global Well-being report was led by University of Illinois professor emeritus of Psychology, Ed Diener, and his findings appeared in this month's issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

It asks respondents to grade their lives from zero to 10, with 10 being the best possible life they could have.

'Gallup's thriving, struggling, and suffering indexes measure the respondent's perceptions of where they stand now and in the future,' it adds.

Those who answered seven and above for their current lives or eight and higher for their future lives were considered thriving, while people were considered to be suffering if they reported their current and future lives to be four or below.

All others were considered to be struggling.

The report also included daily well-being averages based on whether individuals felt well rested, well respected, experienced smiling and laughter, learning and interest, enjoyment, physical pain, worry, sadness, stress and anger.

Researchers then asked the same questions about how each respondent had felt the previous day.

Those answers allowed researchers to score their 'daily experience', with Bahrain scoring an average of 7.0 - putting it on a par with countries such as Spain, Greece and Cameroon.

The best place to live in the world was Denmark, with 82 per cent of people thriving, followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

The worst place in the world was Togo, where just one per cent of respondents thought they were thriving.