Poll finds Americans among most stressed in world

By Umar Farooq</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AA) – A new study found Americans are among the most stressed people in the world and their anxiety levels have reached new heights.</p> <p>More Americans reported feeling stress, worry and anger last year than at any point in the past decade.</p> <p>Americans surveyed in the poll showed 55% experienced stress in the day, in comparison to the global population's average of 35%. This puts the U.S. just four percentage points behind Greece, the leader on the global stress rankings since 2012.</p> <p>Among the other top countries to face stress were Philippines at 58%, Tanzania with 57%, Albania at 55% and Iran 55%.</p> <p>In addition to stress, about 45% of Americans reported feeling worried a lot, in comparison to a 39% average for the rest of the world.</p> <p>The percent of Americans, 22%, that felt anger frequently, however, was equal to the global average.</p> <p>&quot;The disconnect between a strong economy and Americans' increasing negative emotions illustrates how GDP and other hard economic data only tell part of the story,&quot; Gallup said in a press release.</p> <p>When digging into the data, Gallup had found negative feelings Americans were feeling correlated with being under 50 years old, having a low income, and dissatisfaction with the job performance of U.S. President Donald Trump.</p> <p>Gallup's findings showed the U.S. did not have a dim of an outlook, outlining that Americans also reported more positive experiences, with 64% of those surveyed saying they had done something interesting the day prior.</p> <p>This is well about the the global average, of which 49% said that they had done something interesting.</p> <p>The amount of negative experiences worldwide also was high, with the study saying the levels of negative experiences tied with 2017, known as the darkest year for humanity in over a decade.</p> <p>The Gallup poll was conducted through telephone interviews with 1,004 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. It was conducted from Aug. 13- Sept. 30, 2018.