The survey of 85,000 adult respondents via voting app Votee found that of seven regional countries within the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, Thais are the happiest.
Between October 2021 and December 2022, data was collected from respondents in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines.
Often, respondents were asked to rate their level of happiness on a scale of 1 to 10. The results were as follows, starting from happiest to most unhappy.
Thailand (7.62)
Philippines (7.59)
Indonesia (7.43)
Malaysia (7.24)
Singapore (6.28)
Taiwan (6.17)
Hong Kong (5.6)
Over a 15-month period, respondents rated their happiness on a scale of 1 to 10. The overall trend within the wavy graph is downward, with happiness decreasing over time.
The most intriguing a part of the study was examining the connection between GDP and happiness in Asia-Pacific. Despite a high GDP of $49,660 per person, Hong Kong residents had the bottom overall satisfaction rating within the group at 5.6/10.
The GDP per capita of the Philippines, which ranked second on the happiness scale with a rating of seven.59/10, was $3,548. Singapore takes center stage with a happiness index of 6.28/10 and has the best GDP per capita in the realm at $72,794.
Happiness amongst respondents in Hong Kong had a turbulent 15 months, largely remaining below the 5.38 threshold, but then rose in May 2022 as social distancing restrictions were eased, before rising to a fair higher 6.12 in November 2022.
According to the World Happiness Index in March 2022, the Land of Smiles was ranked 61st out of 146 happiest countries. The happiest country was Finland and the least comfortable country was Afghanistan.
Bangkok was named certainly one of the worst cities on the planet for work-life balance in June, regardless that Thailand often is the happiest of seven APAC countries, in line with Votee.
Source: Votee, TheThaiger.com
