Happiest people have more pals, claim researchers in Britain in a new study. The happiest person has more than 10 pals as compared to not-so- happy person who has less than 5 friends.

Dr. Richard Tunney, University of Nottingham and colleagues claim that close friendships are closely related to the level of happiness. Those who were extremely satisfied with life had twice the number of friendships.

Over 1,760 people were interviewed regarding their relationship with friends as part of the survey. The researchers wanted to know how happy and satisfied they were with their lives.

Those who had less than 5 friends had only a 40% per cent chance of being happy. Those having between five and ten have 50% chance of happiness, while those having more than ten friends are likely to be very happy, says the study.

The study also says that Birmingham was the happiest city of Britain on account of friendships and Brighton was an unhappy city.

source:TOI.25th,2008