Empirical Insight on Life in Egypt, Tunisia, and More

Gallup's global wellbeing metrics help us to better and scientifically understand people's wellbeing around the world -- including those currently seeing widespread public protests.

My colleague Jon Clifton and I will release a story soon with a look at the wellbeing in Egypt and Tunisia, reporting that the percentage of people who were "thriving" in these countries fell over the past few years, even as GDP increased. (Update: read the story.)

This just one of dozens of measures Gallup uses to assess the wellbeing of world populations. You can explore more data in the Gallup WorldView. (Update: This entire Washington Post piece is based on data from the Gallup WorldView.)

Additionally, here are some findings we've already published about these countries and the region:

• Egyptians' approval of U.S. leadership fell 18 percentage points from 2009 to 2010, more than in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
• Gallup's global employment tracking finds 21% of residents of the Middle East and North Africa were underemployed from 2009-2010 and 10% were unemployed.
• The Middle East and North Africa region is the only one in the world where young people who are underemployed are more inclined say they would like to permanently migrate from their country than those who are employed.
• Across the Middle East and North Africa, a median of 15% struggled to afford food in 2009. This is lower than in most other regions, but the percentage was as high as 45% in Yemen.
  

As always, we'll continue to publish additional stories adding empirical insight to the global conversation about the events in Egypt and beyond. To get new stories as soon as we publish them, sign up for our world e-mail alerts and RSS feeds.

To learn more about Gallup's work in this area, contact worldpollpartners@gallup.com or call 202.715.3030.

You can also learn more by visiting the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center.