The Most Emotional — and Emotionless — Countries in the World

Latin Americans are among the most emotional people in the world, according to Gallup.

The polling organization’s 2015 Global Emotions report, which ranks 148 countries, shows that seven of the 10 most emotional countries are in Central America or South America. (The other three are the Philippines, Iraq and Cambodia.)

The U.S. came in at No. 14.

At the least emotional end of spectrum, countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union dominate.

Gallup measured participants’ daily emotions by asking them whether they experienced any of five positive and five negative human experiences the prior day.

The negative experiences were:

• Anger
• Stress
• Sadness
• Physical pain
• Worry

The positive experiences were:

• Feeling well-rested
• Being treated with respect
• Enjoyment
• Smiling and laughing a lot
• Learning or doing something interesting

Gallup interviewed about 1,000 people over age 14 and based its rankings on the average number of “yes” responses to all 10 questions.

Based on those interviews, the 10 most emotional countries are:

• Bolivia
• El Salvador
• Ecuador
• Philippines
• Nicaragua
• Guatemala
• Iraq
• Cambodia
• Colombia
• Costa Rica

From 59 percent to 57 percent of participants in those countries reported experiencing positive or negative emotions the previous day.

The 10 least emotional countries are:

• Bangladesh
• Georgia
• Azerbaijan
• Mongolia
• Sudan
• Belarus
• Ukraine
• Russia
• Lithuania
• Kosovo

From 37 percent to 41 percent of participants in those countries reported experiencing positive or negative emotions the previous day.

Culture appears to play a “major role” in these results, according to Gallup. But major events can also have an impact, at least on negative emotions. For example, the organization cites conflicts in Syria and Sudan and the economy in Greece:

Greece’s economic collapse also created a dramatic increase in negative emotions within the country. Since 2007, the Negative Experience Index score in Greece has doubled, and the country ranks among the top 10 in the world for negative emotions.

To see the rest of the rankings, click on the Gallup link above.

Are you surprised by these rankings? Share your thoughts in our Forums. It’s the place where you can speak your mind, explore topics in-depth, and post questions and get answers.