Gusto ko happy ka

Filipinos have become happier. They have never been happier now than at any time since COVID in 2020.

A dramatic improvement in happiness has been taking place since President Bongbong Marcos (BBM) took over in July 2022 from president Duterte, in detention in The Hague facing trial for crime against humanity.

In 2025, the Philippines ranked 57th happiest out of 143 countries surveyed by Gallup in 2024, with a score of 6.107. This is a slight drop from 53rd (with a 6.048 score) in 2024, but a vast improvement from 76th (5.523 score) in 2023, 60th (5.904 score) in 2022 and 61st (5.880 score) in 2021.

Ideally, a country’s score must be 6.0 or above for its people to be counted as happier than the rest of the world. The global country average in 2025 was 5.6.

The Philippines’ 57th ranking in 2025 reflects survey findings of the previous year, 2024; 2024’s 53rd reflects 2023 data; 2023’s 76th is based on 2022 data; 2022’s 60th is based on 2021 data; 2021’s 61st is based on 2020 findings.

Per Gallup, Filipinos were very unhappy during the six years of The Punisher Duterte, with happiness ranking of 82nd (with a score 5.279) in 2016, 72nd (5.430) in 2017, 71st (5.524) in 2018, 69th (5.631) in 2019 and 52nd (6.006) in 2020. The happiness rankings began in 2013, when the Philippines ranked 92nd with a score of 4.985.

The Philippine happiness ranking of 52nd in 2020 is a fluke because of COVID. Per Gallup data, people, especially, Filipinos, become more helpful and benevolent giving during a pandemic. And benevolence is a key measure of happiness and enhances a nation’s ranking if noticed.

The six measures of happiness are: GDP per capita in purchasing power parity, social support, healthy life expectancy at birth, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perception of corruption.

Perception of corruption can bring down a country’s happiness considerably. Gallup data indicate people seem more pessimistic than what reality conveys.

With a score of 6.107, Filipinos are the fourth happiest people in Southeast Asia, but far behind Singaporeans (34th with a score of 6.565), Vietnamese (46th with a score of 6.352) and Thais (49th with a score of 6.222).

The World Happiness report is published by the Wellbeing Research Center at the University of Oxford with Gallup as pollster and the United Nations as backer. Participants rank their lives on a scale of one to 10, ten being the highest.

Nordic countries are the happiest in the world, led by Finland for the eighth consecutive year, with a score of 7.736. Denmark is second, followed by Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg and Mexico. In 2025, the United States fell to its lowest-ever ranking of 24th.

Most unhappy is Afghanistan. Joining it as cellar dwellers in unhappiness are Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Some key findings:

People are much too pessimistic about the benevolence of others. For example, when wallets were dropped in the street by researchers, the proportion of returned wallets was far higher than people expected. This is hugely encouraging.

Second, our well-being depends on our perceptions of others’ benevolence, as well as their actual benevolence. Since we underestimate the kindness of others, our wellbeing can be improved by receiving information about their true benevolence.

Third, when society is more benevolent, the people who benefit most are those who are least happy. As a result, happiness is more equally distributed in countries with higher levels of expected benevolence.

Benevolence increased during COVID-19 in every region of the world. People needed more help and others responded. This ‘benevolence bump’ has been sustained since then. Despite a fall from 2023 to 2024, benevolent acts are still about 10 percent above their pre-pandemic levels.

Benevolence also brings benefits to those doing the caring and sharing. This works best if the motivation is to help others (rather than to feel good yourself), if the act is voluntary and if it has an obvious positive impact on the beneficiary.

There are many ways in which we care and share with each other. Perhaps the most universal example is sharing meals.

Dining alone is not good for your well-being. People who eat frequently with others are a lot happier and this effect holds, even taking into account household size. The increasing number of people who eat alone (25 percent) is one reason for declining wellbeing in the US.

A important form of caring and sharing is the family. Happiness rises with household size up to four people, but above that, happiness declines. Notably, people living alone are much less happy than people who live with others.

Increased loneliness is most evident among young people. In 2023, 19 percent of young adults across the world had no one they could count on for social support, a 39 percent increase compared to 2006.

The opposite of happiness is despair, which can lead to death by suicide or substance abuse – also known as “deaths of despair.”

Deaths of this kind are falling in the majority of countries, except in the US and Korea.

Deaths of despair are significantly lower in countries where more people report donating, volunteering or helping strangers.

The degree of benevolence in a country also has a profound impact on its politics. Populism is largely due to unhappiness. But whether populists are on the left or the right depends on trust. People who trust others veer to the left, those who do not veer to the right.

For our politicians, what is the moral lesson from the happiness surveys? Be generous. That improves happiness. But don’t use people’s money. That brings down happiness because it becomes corruption.

Juan Ponce Enrile is right. Gusto ko happy ka.

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