The study found that people living in wealthier nations like Netherlands, France and the US were less happy and more depressed than those in poorer ones, KMS reported on Thursday.

Netherlands with an average 33.6 percent cases of MDE came second while France and US were placed on third and fourth positions with 32.3 percent and 30.9 percent cases respectively.

In India, around 9 percent of people reported having an extended period of depression within their lifetime and nearly 36 percent suffered from MDE.

The average age of depression in India is 31.9 years compared to 18.8 years in China, and 22.7 years in the US.

The study, published in the BMC Medicine journal, is based on interviews of more than 89,000 people in 18 different countries.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2010