Report on Emotional Wellbeing of People Worldwide

It’s a tough world out there, a new report on the emotional well-being of people worldwide shows.

In the survey, pollsters asked nearly 150,000 people in 142 countries to rate their levels of emotional positivity and negativity. They found that people’s reports of their positive emotions have stayed relatively constant over the past 10 years, but reports of negative emotions have slowly crept up, reaching an all-time high in 2016, according to the Gallup Global Emotions Report.

The report also revealed that the world’s happiest country is Paraguay, which placed first for the second year in a row. The least happy country was Yemen. Researchers conducted the survey over the phone or by face-to-face interviews with people ages 15 or older. Syria, the least happy country in 2015, was not included this year because its ongoing civil war was a security issue, Gallup reported, according to livescience.com.

To learn about participants’ positive experiences, pollsters asked people questions including whether they felt well-rested, respected and enjoyed themselves the day before. For negative experiences, they were asked about feeling physical pain, worry, sadness, stress and anger the day before. Gallup used these results to formulate an index score (of 1-100) for each country.

 More Than 70% Happy

More than 70% of people worldwide reported that they smile or laugh a lot, and that they felt enjoyment, well-rested and treated with respect, Gallup reported.

Latin America and South America have many of the world’s happiest countries, partly because “the cultural tendency in the region to focus on life’s positives,” said the report. The world’s happiest nations, with their positive experience index scores are: Paraguay (84), Costa Rica (83), Panama (82), Philippines (82), Uzbekistan (82), Ecuador (81), Guatemala (81), Mexico (81), Norway (81), Chile (80) and Colombia (80).

The United States ranked 38, with an index score of 75, tying with eight other countries: Luxembourg, Germany, Bolivia, Brazil, Austria, the United Kingdom, Mali and South Africa, Gallup reported. Countries experiencing conflicts, including Ukraine, Iraq, Yemen and Turkey, reported the lowest levels of positive emotions.

Historically, the countries in the Middle East and North Africa have ranked lowest on the positive-experience index; however, six countries there reported higher-than-average happiness levels in 2016, Gallup reported. Also ranking low in positivity in 2016 were the post-Soviet states.

  Negative Experience

Iraq had the highest negativity index score, with 58 points for the fifth time in recent years.

Greece was the most stressed-out country, with 67% saying they felt stressed the day before. This may be because of high unemployment rates there, Gallup said.

Worry was highest in the civil-war-torn Central African Republic (72%); anger was highest in Iran (50%); and sadness was highest in Liberia (55%).

Kyrgyzstan had the lowest (and therefore the least negativity), with a score of 12. The US ranked 57 with a score of 32, tying with the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Macedonia and South Africa, Gallup reported.

Worldwide, 36% of people said they experienced worry, while 35% reported stress, and 30% reported physical pain, Gallup found.

The countries with the highest negative experiences include: Iraq (58), South Sudan (55), Iran (52), Liberia (52), Central African Republic (48), Togo (48), Chad (47), Sierra Leone (47), Uganda (46) and Gabon (43).