Gallup launched its annual global survey of emotions in 2005, in an attempt to understand the amount of stress, worry, and anger that was being experienced in every country. The results of the 2018 survey included 1,000 American respondents, out of more than 150,000 people polled overall. There was a pronounced uptick in negative feelings among Americans, 55 percent of whom reported feeling a lot of stress on the previous day. This was significantly higher than the global average of 35 percent and the fourth-highest amount of stress worldwide, behind only Greece (59 percent), the Philippines (58 percent), and Tanzania (57 percent).
Our high-stress world:
- Gallup also asked the American respondents about their ages, income levels, and political satisfaction. Worry levels in the U.S. outpaced the levels of angst found in most other countries.
- Researchers found that Americans aged 15 to 49 were more stressed, worried, and angry than their older counterparts. Not surprisingly, the lower the income level, the higher the stress.
- People living in Chad, in north-central Africa, were found to have the most negative emotions in 2018. At the other end of the spectrum, the Latin American nations of Paraguay and Panama were the most positive countries surveyed.