Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report, which surveyed 263,810 people across more than 160 countries and territories, found that 50% of Filipino employees experienced stress "a lot of the previous day," double the Southeast Asian average of 25% and above the global average of 40%.
"The Philippines emerges as a clear outlier," wrote Rogelio Alicor Panao, a University of the Philippines Diliman associate professor and data scientist at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, in an analysis of the figures.
Stress is easing almost everywhere else in the region. Panao noted that the share of Vietnamese workers reporting daily stress fell from 35% in 2021 to 13% in 2025, while Thailand's dropped from 41% to 25%.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Laos all sat below the regional average. At 50%, Panao wrote, Filipino daily stress runs close to four times Indonesia's 14% and tops both Cambodia's 34% and Singapore's 43%.
The Philippines also posted the region's highest daily sadness, at 31%, and anger, at 29%. Only 34% of Filipino workers said they were thriving in their lives.
