Gaby
A study from Wrocław University suggests the capital of love isn’t Paris—it’s Budapest. That makes Hungary the country where couples report the strongest feelings. Malaysia and Portugal came in second and third.
The study found a positive correlation between couples’ relationship happiness and their country’s level of development, the Daily Mail reports.
How Researchers Came to Their Conclusions
The team surveyed about 9,500 people in 45 countries about their satisfaction with romantic relationships.
They wanted to know where the happiest couples live and whether cultural, environmental, and other factors affect relationship satisfaction.
In a paper published in Scientific Reports, the authors concluded that modernization can shape romantic experiences.
Participants in relationships from six continents answered 32 questions. Those questions covered three components of love: physical intimacy, emotional connection, and commitment. Volunteers rated their relationships on a scale from one to nine.
Hungary topped the list with an average “love rating” of 7.94, followed closely by Malaysia and Portugal, both at 7.88.
The researchers compared the responses with each country’s levels of modernization, gender equality, and collectivism. To do this, the team used the World Modernization Index (WMI) and the Human Development Index (HDI), which measure a nation’s development.
The WMI reflects poverty, health, infrastructure, and economic factors, while the HDI covers life expectancy, education, and income. The study found that higher WMI and HDI scores—along with greater gender equality and collectivism—were linked to greater relationship happiness.
So, countries with higher WMI, HDI, and gender equality tended to have the happiest couples, especially when it came to intimacy.
The team found that couples in countries with higher WMI typically postpone having children, which may have affected the results.
The study also found that couples in warmer climates tend to be happier, and the same pattern appeared in collectivist societies. In those cultures, people tend to be more altruistic toward their partners, which can lead to closer, stronger bonds.
Here’s what the top ten list looks like.
Top 10 Countries for Love
- Hungary
- Malaysia
- Portugal
- USA
- Italy
- Slovenia
- Mexico
- India
- Australia
- Poland
Another recent study showed that ideal couples biologically synchronize and reach the same level of sweating within two minutes of a date.
