Rabat – Moroccans report some of the highest rates of negative experiences worldwide, the latest Gallup Global Emotions Report has found.
The survey, based on over “151,000 interviews with adults in more than 140 countries in 2018,” found that, overall, the percentage of people who rated their life experiences negatively has significantly risen.
Gallup said the survey measures “life’s intangibles—feelings and emotions — that traditional economic indicators such as GDP were never intended to capture” by asking questions about emotions from the day before the survey.
Forty-one percent of Moroccans admitted to having felt “angry a lot” the day before they were surveyed.
With a negative experience index of 43, Morocco featured among the countries with the “highest negative experiences.” Chad (54), Niger (50), and Sierra Leone (50) topped the category.
Meanwhile, Latin America featured nine of the top 10 happiest countries. Indonesia was the only non-Latin American country in the “highest positive experiences” category. Paraguay, which topped the list with a positive experience index of 85, has led the global happiness race since 2015, according to Gallup.
Worldwide, 71% said they experienced a lot of enjoyment, 72% felt well-rested, 74% smiled or laughed a lot, and 87% felt treated with respect on the day before the survey.
Rather than an exact assessment of how poor or rich a country is, the scores entail a “cultural bias,” Gallup noted. It said the numbers “strongly relate to people’s perceptions about their living standards, personal freedoms and the presence of social networks.”
Gallup’s Jon Clifton said that the survey measures both “how people see their lives and how they live their lives.”
The reactions of the Moroccans that Gallup surveyed are consistent with the latest official statistics on life satisfaction for Moroccan households.
Morocco’s High Commission for Planning (HCP), which records statistics on the country’s socio-economic performance, has reported that the large majority of Moroccans feel a deep sense of pessimism in the future.
According to HCP, that grim outlook on life is a reaction to harsh financial situations, with 82% saying that they would not be able to save any money through 2019.
