Bangladesh tops list of 'hope index'

Bangladeshis are the most optimistic people in the world though the country intermittently faces various challenges, according to a global survey.

Bangladesh topped the list of 68 countries in the hope index and secured the second place in the economic optimism index, shows the WIN/Gallup International's annual global End of Year survey released last week.

In both categories, the country is ahead of all other South Asian nations, including India and Pakistan.

According to the survey, 84 percent of the Bangladeshis polled said they were hopeful when asked whether 2016 would be better, worse or the same as 2015. The score is 27 percentage points higher than the global average. Only seven percent were pessimistic.

Asked whether 2016 would be a year of economic prosperity, economic difficulty or remain the same for the country, some 72 percent respondents said they were optimistic about the economy, again 27 percentage points higher than the global average.

Bangladesh, however, could not make it to the cluster of Top Ten countries in the happiness index though 66 percent Bangladeshis said they were very happy with their life. No other South Asian country was in the index either. 

WIN/Gallup International, the world's leading association in market research and polling, published its 39th end of year survey exploring the outlook, expectations, views and beliefs.

The study shows 45 percent of the world population is optimistic for the economic outlook in 2016, more than double (22 percent) the number of those who were pessimistic.

When it comes to a demographic breakdown, young people prove to be considerably more optimistic than older generations with 31 percent net optimistic for the under 34s compared to just 13 percent for the over 55s.

According to the poll, the happiest country in the world is Colombia, and the unhappiest country is Iraq. Italy is the least hopeful.

In a statement, WIN/Gallup International Association President Jean-Marc Leger said, “2015 has been a tumultuous year for many across the globe, despite that the world remains largely a happy place. Forty-five percent of the world is optimistic regarding the economic outlook for 2016, up by 3 percent compared to last year.”

The survey is an annual tradition initiated by and designed under the chairmanship of Dr George Gallup in 1977. It is conducted every year since then. This year it was carried out in 68 countries.

A total of 66,040 people were interviewed globally. In each country, a representative sample of around 1,000 men and women was interviewed face to face, via telephone or online. The field work was conducted from September to December last year.