The Philippines Ranked as Third Happiest Country in the World

It is a well-known fact that the Filipino people, together with its beloved homeland, went through several bleak circumstances the past year. With the rampant war on drugs and the various political disputes that they have witnessed firsthand, one would assume that these individuals would be pessimistic about the coming year.

Yet it seems that this is not the case at all.

According to the Gallup's annual global End of Year Survey, the Philippines ranked third as the happiest country in the world following Fiji and Columbia - a completely stark contrast to the results of the 2017 World Happiness Report wherein the Philippines found itself all the way down to the 72nd place.

Orchestrating an opinion poll amongst 55 countries, the aforementioned research covered the overall optimism of the participating countries for the coming 2018. The Philippines garnered a net rate of +84 in the study's happiness index and a net rate of +40 in its hope index, classifying it as the 9th optimistic country in the world.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a conference last Wednesday, January 3rd that the current administration would see to it that the Filipino people's happiness will have a strong foundation by ensuring improvement of the economy and of the government as well.

Economic Optimism, Hope, and Happiness
Going further, the study reported a decline in economic optimism over the last months. Results showed that though 28% of the world now possess a confident outlook towards the year 2017, economic pessimism remain to be 2 points higher. A downward trend has been observed since the end of 2015 down to the end of 2017.

As for hope, a bit less than 40% of the surveyed population believe that 2018 will surely be better than 2017 - 13 points down compared to last 2016. An alarming 23% expect an even worse year and 32% believe that things will remain to be the same as 2017.