FREEDOM #95 Where are people the happiest?

The residents of Latin America feel the happiest in Gallup's survey 2015. Hungary is not as bad as we are. We are apathetic sometimes.

The residents of Paraguay, South America, had the best sense of well-being in year 2015, according to Gallup's "2015 Global Emotions" survey.

The top ten places in the list are all Latin American countries.

This suggests that public health is not so much affected by the actual economic situation or political structure, but rather by culture.

Two queries

In the survey, 153,000 people worldwide were questioned, who were questioned about their negative and positive feelings and experiences. The interviewees received such and similar questions:

- Have you felt rested yesterday?

- Have you respected dignity all day long?

- Have you laughed or smiled yesterday?"

- Did you do something or have you learned in the last day?

Questions about negative emotions were about whether or not the respondent had felt sadness, anger, worry or physical pain on the last day.

Money can not buy happiness

The happiest, 90 out of 89 points are behind Paraguay.

The first ten places are all Latin American countries:

Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala 84,

Honduras, Panama and Venezuela 82,

Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua with 81 points.

Data suggest that culture has a strong influence on people's well-being. Gallup notes that Latin American culture strongly focuses on positive experiences, and this is reflected in the responses. There is also no correlation between negative and positive responses: in many countries where respondents have many negative experiences, there are many positive points.

They are successful, yet unhappy

Based on the answers to positive emotional questions, the Sudanese are the most unhappy.

The African country's happiness index was 47.

Sudan is followed by Tunisia with 52 points,

and the third most unhappy with Bangladesh with 54 points.

In the list of most negative emotionalists, a number of countries with war or epidemics have come to the fore, including Afghanistan, South Sudan and Ukraine, and Libya's worst-hit ebola epidemic.

Most of the "yes" responses in Iraq were given to negative emotional issues followed by Iran and Cambodia.

In Iraq, the majority responded that concerns over the last day (62 percent), physical pain (57 percent), sadness (57 percent), and 50 percent angry.

With Iran, the Iraqis are the worst in the survey.

Humor is not lost in war either

Interestingly, most people do not lose their sense of humor even in war-torn countries. For example, 52 percent of people in Afghanistan said they laughed or smiled in the last day.