Monitoring ‘happiness’

 

Mahar MangahasMarch 21, 2026 12:09 am

March 20th was the United Nations’ annual International Day of Happiness, which stemmed from a 2012 UN Resolution initiated by Bhutan, the famed originator of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) concept. It explains the timing of the release of: (a) the Social Weather Stations (SWS) report, “Fourth Quarter 2025 Social Weather Survey: 33% of Pinoys are ‘very happy’ with life; 23% are ‘very satisfied’ with life” (www.sws.org.ph, 3/19/26), and (b) the 2026 World Happiness Report (WHR), published by the Wellbeing Research Group of the University of Oxford in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s editorial board.

Happiness of Filipinos according to SWS. The SWS report discloses its two survey questions for monitoring happiness, one with the adjective “happy” (masaya) and another with the adjective “satisfied” (nasisiyahan), and both describing the respondent’s present life as a whole. Each option has a four-point scale: Very Happy/Fairly Happy/Not Very Happy/Not At All Happy and Very Satisfied/Fairly Satisfied/Not Very Satisfied/Not At All Satisfied. SWS has asked the “happy-life” question 49 times since 1991, and the satisfied-life question 57 times since 2002; see the report’s charts and tables.

Personally, I think the happy-life option goes straight to the point; I also like to focus more on downside rather than the upside. In 2025, SWS used both options in two surveys, with these average results (in percentages): 32 Very Happy, 52 Fairly Happy, 14 Not Very Happy, and 2 Not At All Happy; and 29 Very Satisfied, 51 Fairly Satisfied, 14 Not Very Satisfied, and 6 Not At All Satisfied. For me, these may be simplified into 16 percent “unhappy” and 20 percent “dissatisfied.”

Back in 2021, when SWS did four surveys, the average unhappy was 17 percent and the average dissatisfied was 21 percent, i.e., 2025 showed a tiny improvement in subjective well-being. (I cite 2021 at this point, for comparability with the WHR which uses a three-year rolling average—last year’s WHR involves data as far back as 2022.)

Happiness according to the World Happiness Report. The WHR’s data are from the annual Gallup World Poll, which asks about life-satisfaction, by likening it to being somewhere on a 10-step ladder (from the ground numbered 0 to the top numbered 10, thus 11 points in all), where 10 is the best life, and 0 is the worst life that the respondent thinks could possibly happen to him/her. This is asked with regard to one’s present life, and also with regard to one’s expected life in five years’ time, and then the two are averaged. The WHR uses rolling averages: its 2026 figure combines 2023 to 2025, and its 2025 figure combines 2022 to 2024.

Personally, I prefer questions answerable by choosing words rather than by choosing a number. The only thing definite about a 0-10 scale is that five is the middle, and therefore, all steps of six upward are satisfactory, while all steps of four downward are unsatisfactory.

In the WHR of 2026, Finland at 7.76 is No. 1 again, while Afghanistan at 1.45 is No. 147 and last (the published figures have three decimal places but here I round to two places). At just over 5.00 is South Africa, No. 101; therefore 101/147 or 68.7 percent of the “peoples” (not identical to “countries”) are, on average, satisfied with their lives to some extent, while 31.3 percent of them are not.

The Philippine score is 6.21, up a little bit from 6.11 in WHR 2025. Its rank is 56th versus 57th last year. Here are the current WHR scores and ranks of our Asean neighbors: 36th Singapore, 6.58; 45th Vietnam, 6.43; 52nd Thailand, 6.30; 71st Malaysia, 6.00; 87th Indonesia, 5.62; 92nd Laos, 5.52; 121st Cambodia, 4.46; and 129th Myanmar, 4.29. I see no figures for Brunei and Timor Leste.

We should not envy any other peoples that have higher scores, nor feel superior to those with lower ones. Happiness is not an international sport; it is no basis for national pride or shame. Other peoples’ achievements do not lessen us; their failings do not enhance us. What happens abroad can teach us what to imitate and what to avoid.

And Bhutan? There’s no WHR data for the country that officially eschews the gross national product. As of a decade ago, its GNH had only two data points (see “Gross National Happiness,” 11/28/15). In 2022, its GNH index was reportedly at .781, with 9.5 percent “deeply happy,” 38.6 percent “extensively happy,” 45.5 percent “narrowly happy,” and 6.4 percent “unhappy.” (investopedia.com)

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mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph

Monitoring ‘happiness’

 

BY MAHAR MANGAHAS

MARCH 21, 2026

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March 20th was the United Nations’ annual International Day of Happiness, which stemmed from a 2012 UN Resolution initiated by Bhutan, the famed originator of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) concept. It explains the timing of the release of: (a) the Social Weather Stations (SWS) report, “Fourth Quarter 2025 Social Weather Survey: 33% of Pinoys are ‘very happy’ with life; 23% are ‘very satisfied’ with life” (www.sws.org.ph, 3/19/26), and (b) the 2026 World Happiness Report (WHR), published by the Wellbeing Research Group of the University of Oxford in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s editorial board.

Happiness of Filipinos according to SWS. The SWS report discloses its two survey questions for monitoring happiness, one with the adjective “happy” (masaya) and another with the adjective “satisfied” (nasisiyahan), and both describing the respondent’s present life as a whole. Each option has a four-point scale: Very Happy/Fairly Happy/Not Very Happy/Not At All Happy and Very Satisfied/Fairly Satisfied/Not Very Satisfied/Not At All Satisfied. SWS has asked the “happy-life” question 49 times since 1991, and the satisfied-life question 57 times since 2002; see the report’s charts and tables.

Personally, I think the happy-life option goes straight to the point; I also like to focus more on downside rather than the upside. In 2025, SWS used both options in two surveys, with these average results (in percentages): 32 Very Happy, 52 Fairly Happy, 14 Not Very Happy, and 2 Not At All Happy; and 29 Very Satisfied, 51 Fairly Satisfied, 14 Not Very Satisfied, and 6 Not At All Satisfied. For me, these may be simplified into 16 percent “unhappy” and 20 percent “dissatisfied.”

Some disadvantages of women

 

BY MAHAR MANGAHAS

MARCH 14, 2026

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In line with National Women’s Month, let me recall some experiences that most impressed me about the disadvantages of being a woman.

In some countries, the women may not eat until the men are finished. Long ago, at an international meeting in Bangkok, probably at lunchtime, I was surprised when a South Asian lady asked me, “Mahar, is it true that, in the Philippines, the women have their meals together with the men?” This lady was newly arrived, from either India or Bangladesh, on her very first posting abroad. She explained that in her country, the men and boys are served first, and only after they are through eating do the women and girls take their meal.

What shocked me was her saying that, furthermore, all the food cooked for the family’s meal must be placed on the dining table together, with nothing reserved in the kitchen. This means that the womenfolk depend on what food the menfolk remember to leave behind for them when it’s their turn to eat. (How hard it is to be a male guest for a meal, and not knowing how many women are waiting to eat! I suppose the guest should eat as little as good manners allow.)

A woman is a riskier investment for advanced training abroad. When I was a very young and single economics faculty member at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), I was once with our dean, José “Pepe” Encarnación Jr., having coffee in the lounge, where he was brooding over whether to allot a foreign scholarship grant to a woman. I myself was in line for such a grant, but he said he wasn’t worried about me, whatever my plans about getting married (which I did, just before leaving for foreign studies).

It takes four to five years to do an economics Ph.D. abroad, which is quite expensive in terms of both time and money. In such a long absence, there’s no guarantee that a scholar won’t get married, and perhaps get married to a foreigner! (Pepe himself had returned with an American wife from his studies at Princeton University.) If she gets married, he pointed out, that brings the husband—possibly a foreigner—into the decision-making process about the wife’s finishing the designated study program successfully and then coming back to render the agreed service of two years on the UP faculty for every one year abroad. Even though the money comes from an American foundation, UP needs a good track record to maintain its scholarship program.

I don’t know if Pepe had to refuse a foreign scholarship to any women candidates, but in my time—I got my Ph.D. in 1970, and stayed with the UP faculty until 1981—there were many more men than women who got them. Thanks to its faculty buildup, UP began producing its own economics PhDs in 1975 (the first graduate was a woman, by the way). Brain drain doesn’t seem to be as big an issue as before. The main economics building in UPD is named after Pepe; there’s no doubt he did an outstanding job as its dean for nine years.

Women’s natural disadvantage is in their participation in the labor force. Women naturally take time off for childbearing, and then for child-raising. In the Social Weather Surveys, the joblessness rate among female adults can easily be double that of male adults. Joblessness in Social Weather Stations (SWS) surveys literally means having no job (“walang trabaho”) but at the same time looking for one; those not looking for work are not part of the labor force.

The mere fact of having a job or being at work is not an indicator of women’s well-being; it’s just part of life. How much one’s work is enjoyed for its own sake is another matter, that is researchable and measurable.

In the Philippines, the state of women’s well-being is not far from that of men. As of last November, the percentage of women saying their personal quality of life (QOL) got better from the year before was 31, while that saying it got worse was 36, or a net-gainers score of -5. For men, the corresponding percentages were 28 and 36, or net -8, or slightly less than that for women.

The percentage of women expecting their personal QOL to get better in the next year (optimists) was 45, while the percentage expecting it to get worse (pessimists) was only 6, or a net-optimists score of +39. For men, the corresponding percentages were 44 and 10, or net +34, or slightly less than that for women.

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The SWS surveys also track expectations about the progress of the economy as a whole. When sorted by gender, the women’s scores are likewise a little better than those of men.

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mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph.

‘Kuripot’ economics

BY MAHAR MANGAHAS

DECEMBER 6, 2025

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The recent claim by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Maria Cristina Aldeguer-Roque that a family of four can prepare a noche buena meal for only P500 was immediately attacked as detached from reality, unrealistic, and insensitive. “What planet is she on?” asked several party-list representatives. Not enough for even a simple spaghetti and cheese, said economic watchdog Ibon Foundation. Insulting to Filipino workers, said labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno.

Roque fought back, saying, based on a DTI price guide released in November, a total budget of P374.50 would buy the following: Christmas ham, P170 for 500g; spaghetti sauce, P48.50; spaghetti noodles, P30 for 250g; fruit cocktail, P61.75 for 432g; all-purpose cream, P36.50 for 110ml; and pandesal, P27.75 for 10 pieces, leaving P125.50 of the P500 DTI budget for other items (“DTI stands pat on ‘insulting’ P500 noche buena budget,” News, 11/29/25).

The P500 would provide 10 sandwiches with 50g (half a “guhit”) of ham per pandesal bun. The spaghetti and fruit cocktail are half-size, just enough for one meal for a small family. There is no queso de bola, which costs from P210 to P470, according to DTI, and would already break its budget.