Latin America is world’s happiest region while Singapore unhappiest

Surprising: The people least likely to report positive emotions lived in Singapore, the wealthy and orderly city-state that ranks among the most developed in the world

As the richest country in the world, you'd expect that Qatar would also be the happiest.

And you'd also expect Japanese people to be extremely positive, seeing as though they have the highest life expectancy.

But clearly wealth and good health do not guarantee happiness after both countries failed to make the top ten most positive countries.

The poll of nearly 150,000 people around the world found that seven of the world's 10 countries with the most upbeat attitudes are in Latin America.

Gallup asked about 1,000 people in each of 148 countries if they were well-rested, had been treated with respect, smiled or laughed a lot, learned or did something interesting and felt feelings of enjoyment the previous day.

In Panama and Paraguay, 85 percent of those polled said yes to all five, putting those countries at the top of the list. They were followed closely by El Salvador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Guatemala, the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

The people least likely to report positive emotions lived in Singapore, the wealthy and orderly city-state that ranks among the most developed in the world. Other wealthy countries also sat surprisingly low on the list. Germany and France tied with the poor African state of Somaliland for 47th place.

Many of the seven countries which were most positive do poorly in traditional measures of well-being, like Guatemala, a country torn by decades of civil war followed by waves of gang-driven criminality that give it one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Guatemala sits just above Iraq on the United Nations' Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, education and per capita income. But it ranks seventh in positive emotions.

'In Guatemala, it's a culture of friendly people who are always smiling,' said Luz Castillo, a 30-year-old surfing instructor. 'Despite all the problems that we're facing, we're surrounded by natural beauty that lets us get away from it all.'

The poll shows that prosperous nations can also be deeply unhappy ones. And poverty-stricken ones are often awash in positivity, or at least a close approximation of it.

你也许会认为卡塔尔作为世界上最富有的国家，幸福感也应该是最强的。

你也许还认为日本人一定非常快乐，考虑到日本人的寿命是全世界最长的。

但显然财富和健康并不能保证一定会带来幸福感，因为这两个国家都未能跻身全球最幸福国家前十名。

这项对全球近15万人的调查发现，全球最快乐的十个国家中有七个在拉美地区。

盖洛普民调机构在148个国家中各调查了1000个人，询问他们是否休息得好、受到尊重，是否笑口常开、学到或从事有趣的事情，是否在过去的一天有快乐的感觉。

在巴拿马和巴拉圭，85%的被调查者对五个问题都给出了肯定的答案，因而高居榜首。紧随其后的幸福国家是萨尔瓦多、委内瑞拉、特立尼达和多巴哥、泰国、危地马拉、菲律宾、厄瓜多尔和哥斯达黎加。

最不容易感到快乐的人生活在新加坡——这个秩序井然的富裕城邦，也是全世界最发达的国家之一。其他富裕国家的排名也出奇的低。德国、法国与非洲的贫困国索马里兰一同排在第47位。

幸福感最强的七个国家当中，很多国家按传统的幸福衡量标准都表现很糟。像危地马拉这个被数十年内战搞得四分五裂的国家，战后因帮派猖獗导致犯罪活动频发，是全世界谋杀率最高的国家之一。

在联合国的人类发展指数排名上，危地马拉排名仅在伊拉克之前，但幸福感却排在第七位。人类发展指数排名是对寿命、教育和人均收入的综合排名。

一位30岁的冲浪教练卢兹•卡斯蒂罗说：“在危地马拉，人们很友好，总是面带微笑。尽管我们面临着所有这些问题，但美丽的大自然包围着我们，让我们可以逃离一切。”

调查显示，富裕的国家也可能是非常不快乐的国家。贫困的国家却经常充满着幸福感，至少离幸福感很近。

Vocabulary:

upbeat: 乐观的，快乐的

awash in: 充满着，充溢着