45pc Pakistanis optimistic about 2020: Gallup survey

Forty-five per cent Pakistanis are optimistic about the year 2020, which is higher than the global average of 37 per cent, according to an End of the Year Poll conducted by Gallup International Association, The News reported.

Pakistan, as per the survey's findings, is currently ranked 25th globally in the hope index with a net hope of 25 per cent, which is 13 per cent above the global average of 12 per cent. 

However, Pakistan ranked lower than India, which had a net hope of 42 per cent.

The End of the Year Poll, which was launched in 1977 by Dr George Gallup, further revealed that the people living in the Middle East are predominantly pessimistic (52 per cent), while those living in India and West Asia are predominantly optimistic.

On a country-by-country level, the most optimistic citizens concerning the new year are in Nigeria (73 per cent), Peru and Albania (70 per cent), Kazakhstan (67 per cent) and Armenia (62 per cent). On the pessimistic scale, the ranking is headed by Lebanon (76 per cent), Hong Kong (68 per cent), Jordan (60 per cent) and Italy (59 per cent).

The survey further found out that the global hope and despair index was strongly influenced by age and education — younger people (up to 34 years of age) and people with a higher education level — were significantly more optimistic. Religion, in that respect, was not a deciding factor.

Western Europe was found to be the next most pessimistic region after the Middle East, while non-EU European countries were almost two times more optimistic than the westerners. Americans are significantly more confident than the Russians in their expectations for a better new year. Nigeria — with the greatest population in Africa — leads this ranking every year.

In the last couple of years, usually about one out of two inhabitants of the planet declares they are either very or somewhat happy. This year’s results were no exception, Gallup stated in its study.

The top five countries according to the global happiness index were Columbia (88 points), Indonesia (86 points), Ecuador (85 points) and Kazakhstan (83 points), followed by Nigeria and the Philippines with 78 points each. The least happy countries are Jordan (-38 points), Lebanon (-15 points), Syria (-7 points), followed by Hong Kong and Iraq with five points each.

It should be noted that many of these countries have witnessed significant protests over the course of 2019.

Comparison to previous years showed that significantly fewer people in Russia, Hong Kong, Lebanon and Mexico reported happiness.

According to Gallup International Association President Kantcho Stoychev, “Our global hope and despair index, reflects, first of all, the political and economic situation and the direction of development in every respective country through the eyes of the ordinary people, while the happiness index reveals personal perceptions, closely related to a given national character.”

He added that people around the world were about four times happier in their personal lives compared to their lives as citizens of their countries.

“Kazakhs, Armenians, Indians, Vietnamese, just to name a few, were both happy personally and socially optimistic, while Bosnians, Polish, Koreans and Spaniards are among those who report high levels of personal happiness, combined with high levels of social pessimism,” he said.

“Unhappy personally and socially pessimistic are, for example, the Lebanese and Jordanians, but Syrians and Iraqis are exactly on the opposite end of the scale — they show signs of social optimism, while unhappiness dominates their personal lives.”

In general, social optimism and personal happiness are not related to the wealth of the respective country. The current political situation and its perspectives are the dominating factors, Stoychev added.

Originally published in The News