Filipinos among most positive globally, but sadness takes a toll – Gallup

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 12:35 p.m.) — The Philippines ranked among the 10 countries with the highest positive experiences in 2023, a worldwide poll showed.

In D.C.-based firm Gallup’s 2024 Global Emotions Report, the country scored 82 of 100 on the Positive Experience Index. This means 82% of Filipinos reported more positive emotions the day before the survey was conducted.

The score puts the Philippines in the fifth place globally on par with Malaysia, Senegal and Thailand, indicating that pleasant feelings are more pervasive than negative ones.

Notably, 75% of Filipino adults reported learning or doing something interesting the day before the 2023 survey, ranking them third in the world. This is well above the global average of 54%.

While the Philippines’ positive experience score of 82 is still among the highest in the world in 2023, it was lower than the 85 it garnered in the 2022 Gallup survey.

Not all feel-good

While the country scored highly on positive experiences, the Philippines did not rank exceptionally low on negative ones. The country reported a score of 35 of 100 on the Negative Experience Index.

The Philippines’ negative experience score is higher than the global average of 31.

Filipinos also had the highest reported loneliness in Southeast Asia, a region that leads globally in positive experiences. With 34% reporting feeling sad the day prior, the Philippines’ score is higher than the global average of 23%.

The report, released earlier this month, was based on nationally representative samples of at least 1,000 citizens aged 15 and older from each of the 142 countries surveyed face-to-face or over the telephone.

The margin of sampling error ranges between ±2.2 and ±5.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.