Why is Everyone in Asia so Glum About Everything?
The region seems to have it all – except happiness.
There is little need to fret if you ever had any existential qualms about whether you had enough joy in your life. The technocrats are back with their spreadsheets and numbers to convince you about the why of your internal composure – or lack of it.
Once again, just in time for World Happiness Day on March 20, the UN has cobbled up a report by a group of independent experts, including a Gallup World Poll map published on Monday by Visual Capitalist.
The general lack of regional serenity is something finews.asia commented on at length in 2023 and 2024.
Six Factors
Even though the actual day may have dropped off the radar for many, if not most, the report maintains there are six key factors in how individuals determine whether they are happy - or not. They are income (GDP per capita), (healthy) life expectancy, social support, the freedom to make life choices, generosity, and the absence of corruption.
One of the key things the UN notes in this year’s report is that there is a great deal of consistency in the way people rate their lives from year to year, and something that comes through in the 2025 report.
Taiwan Leads
Regionally, no one country made the top ten this year, although Australia and New Zealand punched above their weight to come in 11th and 12th. Although some might say that they are in Oceania, and not part of this sphere of the world to begin with.
The first real entrant is Taiwan, which comes in 27th with an average happiness score of 6.7. That was well in front of the financial hub of Singapore, which made 34th (6.6).
Midfield and Average
After that, the pickings get dire. Vietnam is 46th, Thailand 49th, followed by Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea (55, 57, and 58 respectively).
The next grouping of countries is headed by Malaysia in 64th (6.0) China (68th, score of 5.9), and Indonesia (83rd, 5.6).
Depressed Hong Kong
One of the big negative surprises, again, is Hong Kong, which came in 88th with a score of 5.5, just in front of Albania and Tajikistan, neither of which is particularly known for being particularly cheerful.
Still, the ironic thing is that Europe is the region that has the happiest countries in the world, even though it is typically thrown around, in Asia at least - as an economic and market basket case.
Scandinavia Wins Again
But after three years of similar results, many governments in the Asia Pacific, and in particular the regional finance hubs, might want to look at what countries like Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands are getting right.
Because it doesn’t seem like long, dark, cold winters near the Artic Circle (and rain in the case of the latter) are putting much of a dampener on individual morale, or at least not much.
