Beaches, sun, welcoming people... Who wouldn't smile in Malaga?
Which are the people who smile the most in the world ? This is what the Danish Meik Wiking, director of the **Happiness Research Institute**, wondered. Therefore, he carried out a study in 20 cities, among which were places of Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. The result? The most smiling people are in Malaga (If we already said that it is the best place to live ...!)
The way to measure the percentage of smiles is basically to look at random people walking down the street: "After observing them for five seconds (without their noticing, because then it would affect the study), he wrote down whether they were smiling or not, calculated their age, noted whether they were with someone or not and what they were doing . Were they drinking coffee, talking on the phone, walking the dog...? I have seen thousands and thousands of people walking down the street, hundreds talking on the phone, dozens of people holding hands, even a guy who was sticking his finger up his nose," Wiking writes in his book **Lykke, In Search of the Happiest People in the World**.
The results of both his observations and those of the Happiness Research Institute are conclusive: Malaga is the city in the world in which people smile more often , almost a 14%. Of course, the smiles of the tourists are not measured, but of the locals.
Landscapes that invite you to smile
One of the reasons that Wiking considers to explain the phenomenon is that the inhabitants of this city go more accompanied than in others. "People she hardly smiles when she goes alone . It is something common to all the countries I have visited", he clarifies.
"There is a significant connection between whether people walk alone or with others and how often they smile. In cities like New York, Seoul and Riga, people often walk alone during the day. Less than one person in five is accompanied, and the ratio of smiles in these countries is between the Lower of the world. At the other extreme are cities like **Málaga or Milan**, where people tend to be accompanied more often," writes the director.
Malaga is good life
Thanks to these observations, Wiking discovered other patterns in the behaviour of those who walk the streets. For example Italians are more likely to shake hands, regardless of age; that Mexicans usually go eating something on the street , and that in Paris and Vancouver it is more common to see people walking the dog.
But do you want to know how ** the ranking of the most smiling cities ** is? Aim, because there is also another Spanish in the top 5!