unexpectedly, the pandemic era has seen a rise in the global sense of coming together. benevolence — donating to charity, helping a stranger and volunteering — saw a 25 per cent increase from the year before.
“the big surprise was that globally, in an uncoordinated way, there have been very large rises in all the three forms of benevolence that are asked about in the gallup world poll,” john helliwell, one of the editors of the report, told
cnn travel
.
the rise in benevolence may have also helped push back against the spike in worry and stress seen soon after the start of the pandemic. in 2020, worry and stress had rose by eight per cent over pre-pandemic levels, while in 2021 this rating was only 4 per cent higher.
helliwell mused that we often underestimate how people will bond in times of crisis, so actively seeing communities coming together raises our opinions of fellow citizens,
according to ctv news
. think of the “buy local” campaigns that swept canadian cities in the early months of the pandemic.
“you find both trust in others and general life evaluations often rise in times when you think ‘these are bad times,’ but what’s happening is people are working together to deal with them,” helliwell said.
nordic countries stack top ten
for the 5
th
year in a row, finland ranks first in the world. four other nordic countries also ranked in the top ten: denmark at number two, iceland is third, sweden at number seven and norway in eighth place. the top ten list was rounded out by switzerland (4
th
), netherlands (5
th
), luxembourg (6
th
), israel (9
th
) and new zealand (10
th
).