Poll: British want to be happy

British residents find their level of happiness dropping and many want their government to step in, a poll concludes.

Pollster GfK NOP found 36 percent of people asked are "very happy," compared to 52 percent found in a 1957 Gallup poll.

The Telegraph reports happiness of residents in Britain has dropped as personal wealth has grown but many respondents want the government to concentrate less on economics and more on general bliss.

"Extra income is not generating extra happiness in society," said Professor Richard Layard, director of the Center for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.

The study of 1,001 people in Britain found 56 percent of those asked were "fairly happy," five percent "fairly unhappy" and three percent "very unhappy."

Eighty-one percent said the government should have the public's happiness as a priority over the 13 percent who sided with the public's pocketbook.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International