KEY TAKE-AWAY
Gallup world poll’s objective is to measure how the lives of the world’s population are going in a manner that permits global comparisons. The poll questions the individual directly, and in many areas of the world, in person. (The pandemic has impacted the latter practise, it is yet to be assessed how this will play out in terms of the findings for 2020).
The poll aims to take the societal temperature ignored by indices like GDP. (If this had been looked at, the Brexit vote in UK might have come as less of a shock).
The poll asks interviewees to rate their lives on a scale of 1-10, now and then to assess (also on a scale of 1-10) where their lives will be in 5 years’ time. (The two responses are aggregated. Above 5 – thriving; below 5 – suffering). Even before COVID, the percentage of people falling into the suffering zone had risen from 9% of those questioned in 2007 to 17% end of 2019.
This matters, because life-satisfaction data can help predict election results and societal unrest. Even if politics are not always the direct source of anger, “anger can cause the politics”. The key states that secured Trump’s election were those in which citizens rated their lives the worst. In Tunisia in the period immediately preceding the immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi the life-satisfaction indices had dropped by 14%.
These wellbeing indicators do not always reflect the other more ‘visible’ economic indicators and while rising economic inequalities are being taken notice of, less heeded (but no less consequential) is the growing gap in terms of wellbeing. Globally stress, anger and sadness were at an all-time high before COVID.
Much remains to be done in terms of quantifying the data and honing the metrics. 30% – 50% of the factors governing perception of wellbeing remain ‘unexplained’.
Age plays a role: U curve of happiness followed the general rule that the young rated their lives higher than the middle aged and the rating then rose again in later years of life. COVID has bent this curve for the first time. It remains to be seen if this trend persists.
