Tired of surveys predictably putting Scandinavia at the top of "happiest country" lists? Here’s a similar poll with some surprise...
Tired of surveys predictably putting Scandinavia at the top of "happiest country" lists? Here’s a similar poll with some surprises. The region with the highest reported levels of positive experiences? Central America. The country with the least negative experiences? Kazakhstan. Some certainties can’t be avoided: Afghanistan is top in negative experiences, bottom in positive experiences.
If you’re feeling worse than ever, you’re not alone. Negative emotions have reached record levels the world over, Gallup found in its 2022 Global Emotions Report. Afghanistan leads the world in least positive and most negative experiences. But even in that slough of despond, the pollsters found some nuggets of good news.
Feelings and emotions are harder to measure than GDP or inflation; yet mood is a critical factor too in the state of nations. That’s why Gallup has been measuring the positive and negative experiences of adults since 2006 in, as of the latest survey, 122 countries across the globe.
Gallup’s Global Emotions Report
The 2022 results are based on interviews conducted from 2021 up to March of this year, so they reflect the impact of the second pandemic year but do not yet fully factor in the effect of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.
Surveyors asked nearly 127,000 interviewees questions about their experiences the day before, both positive (Were they well-rested and treated respectfully? Did they smile or laugh a lot? Did they learn or do something interesting? Did they experience joy?) and negative (Did they experience pain, worry, sadness, stress, or anger?)
Lighter green means fewer positive experiences. Afghanistan and Turkey stand out — and so would Lebanon, if it were big enough to be visible on this map. (Credit: Gallup Global Emotions Report)
The results? “If people thought 2020 would go down in history as one of the worst years ever, the results from [the] Positive Experience Index (PEI) suggest they just needed to wait for 2021,” Gallup’s report sarcastically scoffs.
After several years of stability (at 71 points out of 100), the PEI dropped to 69. Most people felt they had been treated with respect (86%, the highest scoring of the five questions), but only 50% said they learned or did something new the previous day (the lowest score). People felt less well-rested and experienced less joy, but they did smile or laugh a little bit more.
Central America, a cluster of positive experiences
Scandinavian countries traditionally crowd the top of “happiest country” lists, but the countries reporting the most positive experiences are in a different geographic cluster altogether — Central America, home to four of the top six. Here’s a look at the countries with the highest PEI:
Panama (85)
Indonesia (84)
Paraguay (84)
El Salvador (82)
Honduras (82)
Nicaragua (82)
Iceland (81)
Philippines (81)
Senegal (81)
Denmark (80)
South Africa (80)
The global Positive Emotions Index went down a few points but is still a point above its even lower beginnings. (Credit: Gallup Global Emotions Report)
Turn that list upside down, and Afghanistan comes out on top. Afghanistan has been the lowest-scoring country on the PEI since 2017. Things only got worse during the latest survey, conducted in August and September last year. That’s when America pulled out of the country, Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government collapsed, and the Taliban returned to power.
During this period, Afghans reported record low levels of joy (20%), smiling or laughing a lot (18%), and feeling well-rested (15%). The overall PEI score of 32 is the lowest ever — not just for Afghanistan, but for any country in the entire 16-year history of Gallup’s Global Emotions Report.
Things went from already bad to even worse in Afghanistan. (Credit: Gallup Global Emotions Report)
While not as bad as Afghanistan, Lebanon and Turkey also reported plummeting levels of positive experiences (dropping nine points in a single year in Lebanon and four points in Turkey). The countries with the lowest PEI were:
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