Maybe there’s something in Panama’s canal water.

In a new poll, the Central American country ranks first among 135 countries on subjective well-being – not just how much wealth or health people have but how they feel about their lives.

Syria and Afghanistan rank last, and the USA ranks 12th in the poll conducted in 2013 and released Tuesday by Gallup and Healthways, a Franklin, Tenn., company that markets wellness programs.

The results are based on a new global version of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The index looks at how people feel about five facets of their lives: sense of purpose, social connections, community, finances and physical vigor.

Overall, countries in the Americas and Northern Europe rank highest, and those in sub-Saharan Africa rank lowest.

Panamanians truly stand out for positivity: 61% are “thriving” on at least three measures of well-being, Gallup researcher Dan Witters says. The next closest country is Costa Rica at 44%. Six of the top 10 countries are in Latin America.

“That’s not a big surprise, based on what we know and have measured in the past,” Witters says. A previous Gallup poll found Latin Americans in general and Panamanians in particular have the most upbeat attitudes, based on things such as smiling and laughing a lot and enjoying life.

Another recent poll found people in Panama had something to smile about, he says: They were the most likely in the world to say it was a good time to find a job, reflecting a growing economy – driven in part by a Panama Canal expansion under construction.

The well-being poll may be picking up a cultural tendency in some countries to “see the glass as half full,” says Peter Choueiri, president of Healthways International.

In some cases, he says, results suggest a mismatch between perceptions and reality. For example, people in Saudi Arabia and Mexico scored in the top 10 for physical well-being, despite having very high obesity rates.

Knowing about such mismatches, he says, can help governments, employers and insurers design culturally sensitive interventions.

The poll also picked up some grim realities. Just 1% of people in conflict-torn Syria and Afghanistan were found to be thriving on at least three measures.

Even in the USA, just one-third of people are thriving financially, saying they have enough money not to worry and to do what they need to do, Witters says.

The USA ranked 15th for social well-being, 18th for sense of purpose, 21st for financial well-being and 25th for both physical well-being and community.

Recent U.S.-only versions of the poll have found that Provo, Utah, ranks first among cities and that North Dakota ranks first among states.

Worth noting: Other international studies using different measures rank the well-being of countries in different order. Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden topped the 2013 World Happiness Report issued by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The USA came in 17th in that study.

Here is how each country ranked, based on the percentage of its people found to be “thriving” in at least three of the five categories:

1. Panama, 61%

2. Costa_Rica, 44%

3. Denmark, 40%

4. Austria, 39%

5. Brazil, 39%

6. Uruguay, 37%

7. El Salvador, 37%

8. Sweden, 36%

9. Guatemala, 34%

10. Canada, 34%

11. Trinidad and Tobago, 34%

12. United States, 33%

13. Argentina, 33%

14. Netherlands, 33%

15. Colombia, 32%

16. Chile, 31%

17. Mexico, 31%

18. United Arab Emirates, 31%

19. Venezuela, 30%

20. New Zealand, 30%

21. Saudi Arabia, 29%

22. Nicaragua, 29%

23. Australia, 28%

24. Bahrain, 28%

25. Malta, 28%

26. United Kingdom, 28%

27. Paraguay, 27%

28. Ireland, 27%

29. Germany, 27%

30. Kuwait, 26%

31. Honduras, 26%

32. Iceland, 26%

33. Ecuador, 26%

34. Israel, 25%

35. Spain, 24%

36. Malaysia, 24%

37. Jamaica, 24%

38. Turkmenistan, 24%

39. Kosovo, 24%

40. Philippines, 24%

41. Belgium, 23%

42. Finland, 23%

43. Bolivia, 23%

44. Thailand, 22%

45. Morocco, 22%

46. Kyrgyzstan, 21%

47. Luxembourg, 21%

48. North Cyprus, 21%

49. Portugal, 20%

50. Dominican Republic, 9%

51. France, 19%

52. Lebanon, 19%

53. Mongolia, 18%

54. Vietnam, 18%

55. Taiwan, 18%

56. Slovenia, 18%

57. Hungary, 18%

58. Sri Lanka, 17%

59. Mauritania, 17%

60. Poland, 17%

61. Peru, 16%

62. Russia, 16%

63. Slovakia, 16%

64. Japan, 15%

65. Myanmar, 15%

66. Bangladesh, 15%

67. Estonia, 15%

68. Indonesia, 15%

69. Kazakhstan, 15%

70. Cyprus, 15%

71. India, 15%

72. Ethiopia, 15%

73. Iraq, 15%

74. Macedonia, 14%

75. South Korea, 14%

76. Romania, 14%

77. Moldova, 14%

78. Nagorno Karabakh, 14%

79. Jordan, 14%

80. Iran, 14%

81. Belarus, 13%

82. Congo Brazzaville, 3%

83. Czech Republic, 13%

84. Malawi, 13%

85. Bulgaria, 12%

86. Pakistan, 12%

87. Rwanda, 12%

88. Tajikistan, 12%

89. Ghana, 12%

90. China, 12%

91. Angola, 12%

92. Mali, 11%

93. Cambodia, 11%

94. Sierra Leone, 11%

95. Ivory Coast., 11%

96. Yemen, 11%

97. Turkey, 11%

98. Nepal, 11%

99. Tunisia, 11%

100. Montenegro, 10%

101. Serbia, 10%

102. Latvia, 10%

103. Palestine, 10%

104. Greece, 10%

105. Niger, 10%

106. Nigeria, 10%

107. Bosnia Herzegovina, 10%

108. Egypt, 10%

109. Lithuania, 9%

110. Guinea, 9%

111. Azerbaijan, 9%

112. Armenia, 8%

113. Tanzania, 8%

114. Bhutan, 8%

115. Zimbabwe, 8%

116. Ukraine, 8%

117. Albania, 8%

118. Italy, 8%

119. Senegal, 7%

120. Kenya, 7%

121. Gabon, 7%

122. Cameroon, 7%

123. South Africa, 7%

124. Botswana, 7%

125. Burkina Faso, 7%

126. Georgia, 7%

127. Croatia, 7%

128. Benin, 6%

129. Uganda, 6%

130. Madagascar, 6%

131. Chad, 5%

132. Congo Kinshasa, 5%

133. Haiti, 3%

134. Afghanistan, 1%

135. Syria, 1%