Singapore ranks among the 10 countries with the most pessimistic people in the world, according to a survey done by Gallup.

In a report released last week, the international pollster said 24 per cent of the respondents in Singapore rated their future lives lower than their current lives.

The survey was based on telephone and face-to-face-interviews with about 1,000 adults in each of 141 countries and areas last year. It asked respondents to indicate which level they feel best represents the life they have currently and about five years from now.

Greece topped the list of pessimistic countries with 38 per cent of respondents pessimistic about the direction of their lives. The European nation has been hit hard by recession, and official data shows that it’s jobless rate hit 27.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Three other European countries followed Greece: Czech Republic (33 per cent), Slovenia (32 per cent) and Hungary (29 per cent).

Rounding out the list of countries with the most pessimists were Haiti and Taiwan with 26 per cent each, and Spain, Cyprus and Poland with 25 per cent.

Tan Ern Ser, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Sociology, said that although Singapore’s problems are smaller than those in the Europe, it is hard to compare between the two.

“I believe they (Singaporeans) compare themselves against the First World standards we know of in the 70’s and 80’s (Swiss standards) and that of North Europe, like Norway and Finland at present,” he said.

Gallup’s latest poll follows a similar poll it conducted in 2011, which identified Singapore as the country with the least emotional people in the world.

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