Report: Scots not healthy nor happy

STIRLING, Scotland, July 31 (UPI) -- A study, published by the Scottish Economic Policy Network, found that the Scottish people are neither healthy nor happy.

The study by Dartmouth College economist David Blanchflower and University of Stirling economist David Bell found that citizens of Scotland enjoy little satisfaction in life and have a variety of health problems.

"We usually think that a strong economy leads to an increase in life satisfaction among the population," Blanchflower said in a statement. "We found that's not the case in Scotland."

The people of Scotland have had an improved standard of living, a low crime rate compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, its own Parliament since 1999, but according to the authors, Scotland have seen no increase in life satisfaction.

Scots have high rates of obesity, AIDS, coronary disease, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and asthma and the rate of diabetes among those younger than 15 is one of the highest in the world.

The report compared Scotland's happiness with other European countries, and found Germans, French and Italians were even less satisfied with life, while the Scandinavian population scored much higher in life satisfaction.