If you're happy and you know it...

You may be a woman. The world over, women tend to be happier, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. Women in two-thirds of the countries surveyed rated their happiness higher than men. Overall, men and women in the United States and Canada are some of the happiest in the world with more than two out of three rating their lives on the highest rung of happiness.

In about 60 percent of the countries surveyed, women also tended to be more satisfied than men with their recent personal progress. And in 10 of the 44 countries surveyed, more than half of the women say their lives have improved within the last five years, including 52 percent of American women.