On April 30, Baylor and Harvard Universities, together with Gallup and the Center for Open Science, released the first findings of their ongoing worldwide survey of human flourishing. Most social science results are often ignored by the press as obvious, trivial, or boring. But this research has resulted in stories in many outlets, including the New York Times and Atlantic, pinnacles of U.S. journalism, as well as Nature, probably the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal.
Among its many findings are that Southeast Asian countries could lead the world in human “flourishing” – which the study defines as “living in a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are going well.”
The survey has drawn unusual attention because of its scale, rigor, and often surprising results. The researchers interviewed over 200,000 people in 22 countries, spanning the six populated continents, selected for geographic, cultural, and religious diversity. The survey has results for particular countries and also worldwide. It may be the widest such survey ever attempted and is ongoing. With the probable future inclusion of China, it will cover 64 percent of the world’s population.
Surveys of human happiness have tended simply to ask people if they are happy. This report goes much deeper and examines health, happiness, meaning, character, relationships, and financial security. Each of these areas of investigation is subdivided, so that the survey includes over a hundred criteria. There are many complex results, but some key findings are illuminating.
For example, previous studies have found that usually younger and older people are doing better and those in the middle are comparatively worse off. While there are country differences, this study finds that generally “young people are struggling.”
Men and women report roughly similar flourishing scores globally, with some variation between countries. Women tend to do better in Japan whereas men do better in Brazil.
Another major finding is that those who attend religious services tend to flourish more. Unusually, this finding is consistently important across almost every country but is strongest in Western, secular countries. This positive role of religion is consistent with most serious social science surveys. Of course, there are dramatic exceptions – such as the tyrannies of the Islamic State or the Taliban – but overall serious religion correlates with human wellbeing.
Consistent with the results on religion, the more secular WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic) countries do not do well in this measure of human flourishing. Of the 22 countries covered, the United States falls in the bottom half, and the United Kingdom almost at the bottom. These and other richer developed countries score higher on financial security and life evaluation, but poorer nations more than make up for this on stronger meaning, purpose, and relationships.
In general, the survey found that meaning in life and composite flourishing is negatively correlated with GDP per capita. Money does not itself increase human flourishing.
This also produces a striking result for ASEAN. Of the 22 countries surveyed, only two are in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines. But surprisingly, these are two out of the three leading countries in the world. Whether or not financial factors are included, Indonesia comes in first and the Philippines third.
We should be cautious, especially as the survey will be repeated over the next four years. But some conjecture on the reasons for this remarkable result is in order.
Some plausible factors are that, while not rich, both Indonesia and the Philippines are middle-income countries and not desperately poor. They are historically also relatively open island nations shaped by centuries of contacts and trade with other countries and diverse people.
Both countries are very religious. Each has a large majority religion but with comparative openness to robust religious minorities. Reflecting this, both Indonesia and the Philippines still have strong family, communal, village, and tribal relations, even among those who have moved to the big cities. In short, they can draw on tradition and are more rooted societies. Indonesia scores highest in the world in, inter alia: happiness, life satisfaction, meaning, purpose, relational contentment, satisfying relationships, promoting good, hope, gratitude, and charitable giving.
There is, of course, much further work to be done on the why of these results. But we can say that wealth and success count for less than meaning, purpose, community, relationships, and religion in human flourishing, and these are areas where much of ASEAN is comparatively rich.