Higher benevolence rates among Millennials and Generation Z – post-COVID-19 pandemic – are helping to improve life evaluations on the continent, as these two African countries emerge among the top 10 globally for the highest increase in happiness levels.
Conrad Onyango, bird story agency
The Republic of Congo and Togo are amongst the countries that have seen happiness levels amongst their citizens increase the most over the past 12 years.
The two African countries are listed among seventeen countries globally that recorded increases in average life evaluations of a full point or more.
The World Happiness Report 2024 ranks the Republic of Congo in fourth place globally (with 1.40 points) for the biggest increase in happiness levels, after Serbia (1.84 points), Bulgaria (1.57 points) and Latvia (1.47 points ), mostly thanks to increases among their youth populations.
Togo closed the world’s top 10 most improved (with 1.20 points).
While negative emotions have been on the rise around the globe, the report notes that higher frequencies of positive emotion are outdoing negative feelings in Africa, as Millennials and Generation Z become more socially connected online and helpful to each other post-pandemic compared to over 10 years ago.
“The frequency of positive emotions in every region is highest for those under 30, thereafter steadily declining with age in every region...In Sub-Saharan Africa life satisfaction has increased among the young,” said the report.
According to a report, during the early years of the Gallup World Poll (2006-2010), the happiest group was the young, followed by those over 60, and those aged 30 to 44. However, it notes that recently there has been a slight decline in average happiness as age increases worldwide.
Overall, Congo Brazzaville is ranked fifth in Africa and 89th in the world, with its young population being the happiest in the country, while Togo is ranked 27th in Africa and 124th globally, with its upper middle-aged population being the biggest happiness driver.
Libya is ranked 66th in the world and leads in Africa with the happiest population thanks to a middle-aged population whose happiness has been buoyed by a resurgence in political stability following an end to the country’s second civil war in 2020.
Mauritius is the second happiest country in Africa and 70th globally, with its older population being the happiest in the country. South Africa is ranked 83rd globally and is the third happiest country in Africa.
In North Africa, happiness is highest among the young, especially young females, and then falls steadily before rising again for women 60 and over.
“Overall, globally, young people aged 15-24 experienced improved life satisfaction between 2006 and 2019, and stable life satisfaction since then,” according to the report.
The report is based on surveys conducted by the Gallup World Poll, which involved approximately 1,000 respondents from almost every country. One of the questions asked the respondents to rate their current life on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the least happy and 10 being the most happy.
The report also used data from the Meta-Gallup Global State of Social Connections survey, which was included in the 2022 round of the Gallup World Poll for 140 countries.
It showed how generational differences in feelings of social support, loneliness, and being socially connected relate to six types of reported social interactions and to overall life evaluations.
The data sets revealed that there has been a significant increase in benevolence following the COVID-19 pandemic for all generations and mostly so for Millennials and Generation Z. These younger generations it found are more likely than their predecessors to help others in times of need.
“Feelings of social support have been more than twice as prevalent as loneliness in 2022. Both social support and loneliness affect happiness, with social support usually having a larger effect. Social interactions add to happiness, with their effects flowing through increases in social support and reductions in loneliness,” explained the report.
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