(Reuters)

Scandinavians may spend a lot of the winter in darkness but they are the happiest people in Europe, according to a study released this month.

Countries like Denmark and Finland scored highest on the study of happiness in Europe carried out by Cambridge University, which also found that the sunny southern countries of Italy, Portugal and Greece got the least joy out of life.

The survey entitled: "No Man is an Island" revealed that countries where people enjoy time with friends and family, have trust in government and national institutions were more likely to be happy than those living in a sunny climate.

The study rated respondents on their overall sense of happiness and life satisfaction on a scale of one to 10.

Danes -- who expressed a high level of trust in their politicians and public institutions -- came top of the field at 8.3. Italians -- who reported lower levels of satisfaction with their national quality of government -- came last at 6.49.

"Italy, Greece, Portugal, Germany and France report the lowest levels of happiness whereas the Scandinavian Countries, Netherlands and Luxembourg report the highest," the study said.

Although Europeans are generally four times wealthier than their fathers and grandfathers, their levels of happiness are either equal to or lower than 40 years ago.

The study also looked at factors contributing to happiness within countries and surprisingly found that an interest in politics actually increased happiness.

Lead researcher Luisa Corrado said tax cuts and throwing money at social problems appeared to have no effect on the happiness of citizens when compared with government policies which strengthened and supported wider social networks.

"People are less naive than one would expect, politicians need to tailor their policies and target specific problems in specific areas," she said.