Global Life Satisfaction Hits Record High, Fewer People Report ‘Suffering’

Life’s looking up for a record number of people across the globe, according to Gallup’s latest wellbeing survey. The poll shows that more adults than ever are feeling good about their lives and hopeful about the future, despite the world being far from problem-free.

Gallup’s data, released Tuesday, shows 33% of adults in 142 countries described themselves as “thriving” in 2024 – the highest figure since the survey began nearly two decades ago. That’s up two points from 2023. On the flip side, only 7% said they were “suffering”, compared to 12% in 2014.

Back in 2008, after the global financial crisis, just 20% of people around the world felt they were thriving. Things have been steadily improving since then.

“The world is not short of significant challenges, from climate change to conflicts and technological upheaval,” said Benedict Vigers, a senior writer at Gallup. “Yet even against this backdrop, more people across more countries say they are living better lives today and are hopeful for tomorrow, and fewer are suffering.”

Northern Europe leads the pack with 66% of adults calling their lives good or great. North America, Australia and New Zealand are next, with 49% of adults feeling positive about where they’re at.

At the other end, people in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region reported much lower satisfaction – 11%, 15% and 17% respectively.

Some countries made massive leaps in happiness levels over the past decade, with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia and Hungary all jumping by at least 20 percentage points.

Gallup says its results broadly match UN data showing improvements in income, health and living standards, but reminds us that more money doesn’t automatically mean more happiness.

Respondents rated their lives on a scale of 0 to 10 – where they stand now and where they think they’ll be in five years. A 7 or above for today and 8 or above for the future meant “thriving.” Scores of 4 or below were marked as “suffering.”

With input from Al Jazeera