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Brazilians have never been happier, says a survey
March 15, 2023
Brazilians have never been happier, but only four in 10 are happy with the economy, according to a survey by the Ipsos Institute, which tracked people’s happiness in 32 countries.
In Brazil, 83% of respondents consider themselves very happy or happy an increase of 20 percentage points compared to the last poll, conducted in December 2021, when the index was 63%. In the world, the perception of happiness also increased, from 67% to 73%.
In the Brazilian case, it was the best result since the survey began in December 2011 by then, happiness had peaked in May 2013, when 81% of respondents said they were very happy or happy.
Brazil ranked fifth in the global happiness ranking, behind only China (91%), Saudi Arabia (86%), the Netherlands (85%) and India (84%).
The most dissatisfied are Hungarians (50%), South Koreans (57%) and Poles (58%).
“People see this year as the conclusion of an extremely challenging chapter in our history: Covid19, although the pandemic has not been fully eradicated, its impact is infinitely smaller than in recent years. This feeling reinforces the perception of happiness,” says Marcos Calliari, CEO of Ipsos in Brazil.
The survey, titled Global Happiness Study or Global Happiness Study, was conducted online between December 22, 2022 and January 6, 2023 with 22,508 respondents aged 16 to 74 in 32 countries.
There were 1,000 respondents in Brazil and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 points.
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Brazil was also the fourth country with the highest growth in the perception of happiness (20 percentage points), behind only Colombia, Chile and Argentina, which had 26 percentage point growth over the same period.
And Latin America, the region where happiness has increased the most globally.
The British, French and Poles were the least satisfied on the same basis of comparison.
Compared to December 2021, the decrease was 13 percentage points for the United Kingdom and seven percentage points for France and Poland.
However, compared to the last ten years (May 2013), the happiness index of Brazilians has only increased by two percentage points.
The low point in the series was in 2017, when just 56% of respondents said they were happy or very happy.
Between 2019 and 2021, the index was around 60%.
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Brazilian happiness is the highest since the survey began
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According to the survey, middleincome countries like Brazil showed an increase in perceptions of happiness compared to highincome countries like France or the United Kingdom.
Married, with more money and with a higher level of education are on average happier. There was no significant difference in perceptions of happiness between men and women.
However, the survey also showed that satisfaction with areas of life varies depending on a country’s economic development.
According to the survey, citizens from higherincome countries tend to be more satisfied with security, material possessions, quality of life and employment.
On the other hand, people living in middleincome countries show greater satisfaction with faith/spiritual life, physical wellbeing, appearance, feeling in control and purposeful, and feeling valued.
Globally, satisfaction is highest with relationships, children, spouses, relatives, friends, coworkers, and nature, as well as with education and information.
And lower with the situation in the country, personal finances, love/sex life and physical activity.
Specifically in the case of Brazil, of all the aspects analyzed to measure the level of life satisfaction, the highest index was recorded in the relationship with the spouse 78% of Brazilians reported being satisfied or very satisfied.
Worst of all was the country’s economic situation only 37% of respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied.
A similar rate 43% was recorded given the social and political situation in Brazil.
Also, only 58% of Brazilians said they had close friends or relatives they could rely on in an emergency.
The country ranks second to last in this regard, behind only Japan (54%).
The Netherlands (82%), Indonesia and Portugal (both 79%) top the list. The global average is 72%.
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Brazilian happiness has increased by 20 percentage points since December 2021
The survey also revealed that people around the world are more pessimistic about the future of relationships.
It doubled the number of respondents who think it will be harder for singles to find a romantic partner, for couples to maintain happy relationships, and for people to have friendships they rely on over the next decade can.
Brazil, on the other hand, is one point outside the curve. In all three aspects, Brazilians showed greater optimism about the future of relations.
According to the survey, pessimism is greater among the “baby boomers” (born after World War II to the mid1960s) and Xgenerations (born between 1965 and 1980), the less educated and wealthy, and the unmarried. It is more pronounced in higherincome countries.