SURVEY RESULTS:
ARE INDONESIANS THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD?
When President Prabowo announced in a gathering that the results of the Gallup International Happiness Index 2025 ranked Indonesia among the world’s happiest nations—with 85% of respondents declaring themselves happy—Indonesia stood in second place after China. This index measures citizens’ subjective feelings about their lives, reflecting social and cultural satisfaction, including the strong sense of family and community cooperation in Indonesian culture.
Meanwhile, The Harvard Study of Adult Development—an 85-year study on happiness—concluded that the most important factor for long-term happiness and health is not wealth, IQ, or status, but the quality of warm and supportive relationships.
So why, then, were many people upset by this announcement? Is this survey accurate? Or is it misleading? To find out, let’s read this short reflection to the end.
First, what is happiness?
In modern psychology, happiness is generally understood as a relatively stable state of emotional well-being: frequent positive emotions (joy, peace, contentment), few negative emotions, and the sense that life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile. In scientific terms, this is often described as subjective well-being—a blend of life satisfaction, emotional balance, and a sense of purpose or meaning.
The Encyclopedia of Psychology defines happiness as an emotional well-being condition, both as a momentary experience when good things happen and as a broader positive evaluation of one’s entire life (subjective well-being).
Well-known researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky (University of California, Riverside) defines happiness as the experience of joy, satisfaction, and positive well-being combined with the belief that life is good, meaningful, and worth living.
Now, let’s look at the sequence of “achieving happiness” according to Maslow.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
One commonly used theory is Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—the idea that humans tend to move from satisfying basic needs toward self-actualization, where people are more likely to experience a fulfilling and happy life.
The classic version lists five levels:
Physiological needs: Food, water, sleep, shelter, and other bodily necessities.
Safety needs: Physical security, health, job/economic stability, and protection from danger.
Love and belonging: Relationships—family, friendship, community, feeling accepted and loved.
Esteem needs: Feelings of worth, respect, confidence, and competence.
Self-actualization: Developing one’s deepest potential, becoming fully oneself, living creatively and according to one’s values and calling.
Maslow noted that, in general, lower-level needs must be sufficiently met before one can truly pursue higher-level growth, though the process is not always strict and may overlap.
PERMA Model of Happiness
In more recent positive psychology, Martin Seligman proposed the PERMA model—not as a step-by-step ladder, but as five essential components that enhance happiness and well-being when cultivated:
Positive Emotion: Cultivating gratitude, joy, hope, love, and healthy enjoyment—not never feeling sad, but having positive emotions outweigh the negative.
Engagement (Flow): Being fully absorbed in meaningful activities—work, service, or hobbies that challenge and align with one’s strengths.
Relationships: Maintaining warm, trusting, and supportive relationships, giving and receiving emotional support.
Meaning: Feeling that life serves a greater purpose beyond oneself—through values, faith, calling, or service to others.
Accomplishment: Setting and achieving goals, experiencing success and growth in competence.
From these categories, has Indonesian society fulfilled the criteria for genuine happiness? It’s worth exploring with further study.
From a Christian Perspective
From my perspective as a Christian observer, happiness according to the Bible is not primarily about pleasurable feelings or a problem-free life, but about joy and peace that arise from a right relationship with God through Christ—a joy that endures even amid suffering.
Let’s look at two perspectives: first, the general worldly view, and second, the Christian (biblical) standard.
1. Happiness According to the World
The world views happiness as a feeling of pleasure that comes from success, wealth, comfort, and freedom from problems. All of these are temporary and depend on circumstances. Many popular views distinguish “happiness” (a fluctuating feeling) from “joy” (a deeper state), yet worldly happiness still focuses on outward conditions such as health, career, and entertainment.
Thus, when situations change—economic crisis, illness, or conflict—worldly happiness collapses easily.
For example, the government provides free nutritious food for children or distributes houses to some citizens. During the President’s announcement of the survey results, the audience cheered and applauded enthusiastically—though we don’t know whether all truly agreed.
Meanwhile, those who heard the news through social media reacted differently. Many Indonesian netizens (+62) criticized, protested, or mocked the results. Only a few seemed to agree. Why? Because the reality of our beloved nation is not entirely pleasant. There are still corruption cases, illegal mining and plantations, restrictions on some Christmas celebrations, and recent floods in North Sumatra, Aceh, and Sibolga that remain unresolved. Unemployment also persists.
2. Happiness According to the Bible
Scripture teaches that blessedness or joy comes mainly from the presence of God, not from outward comfort or wealth. In both the Old Testament—especially in the Psalms—and the New Testament, true joy is found before the Lord and in His steadfast love.
Jesus Himself taught that the blessed are those who live in God’s kingdom: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those persecuted for righteousness’ sake—for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5, general meaning).
This joy is not the result of human achievement but the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the heart of every believer.
Therefore, without taking sides, I see objectively that the findings of Gallup and Harvard actually align with the Christian view: human beings are created to love God and one another. A right relationship—with God through Christ, and with others—is the heart of true happiness, even amid poverty, persecution, or disaster.
The Bible teaches a joy that endures in suffering—rooted in Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and eternal hope, not in temporary life stability.
The challenge is that not everyone can live this way. Only those who truly experience the grace of God can remain joyful. If faith is merely lip service, then what follows is grumbling, complaining, and resentment.
Therefore, we should accept that the survey is just that—a survey—and its respondents may simply be among those presently enjoying happiness. Let’s take the positive side. Imagine if, as a nation, we can already be happy even when conditions aren’t perfect—how much happier we’ll be when things improve!
Maslow’s theory doesn’t quite apply here, because just hearing this survey result has already made many Indonesians happy—the proof being the joyful applause of those present during the announcement.
(Mid-January 2026 – Greetings of Happiness from S. Saud)
