Last year was the world’s most miserable for more than a decade, according to a survey of people’s emotions in more than 145 countries.
People experienced sadness, stress, worry, anger and physical pain more frequently in 2017 than in previous years, according to Gallup’s annual Global Emotions Report.
The results mean the world is more “negative” than at any point since the polling company started the study in 2005.
In a year dominated by war, political division and humanitarian crises, nearly four in 10 people told pollsters that they experienced stress or worry the previous day.
One in five people reported feeling anger, while 23% experienced sadness and 31% suffered physical pain.
The title of most negative year in the Negative Experience Index had been shared by 2015 and 2016, with scores of 28, but 2017 recorded a score of 30. The survey polled 154,000 people worldwide.
“Collectively, the world is more stressed, worried, sad and in pain today than we’ve ever seen it,” Mohamed S. Younis, Gallup’s managing editor, wrote in the report.
“Regardless of where a country may fall on the Positive or Negative Experience Indexes or where it ranks in terms of specific positive or negative experiences, all leaders need to be monitoring the emotional temperature of the people they lead,” he added.
