Sociodemographic Variation in Gratitude Using a Cross-National Analysis with 22 Countries

We used nationally representative data from the first wave of the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898) to (1) explore the distribution of gratitude in 22 geographically and culturally diverse countries and (2) identify potential differences in mean gratitude across nine sociodemographic characteristics, including age, gender, marital status, employment status, years of education, immigrant status, frequency of religious service attendance, religious affiliation, and racial/ethnic identity. Our descriptive analysis supported substantial variation in gratitude across countries. The highest mean gratitude was in Indonesia (M = 8.93, SD = 1.76), whereas the lowest was in Japan (M = 5.81, SD = 2.25). We estimated country-level descriptive statistics for gratitude in each sociodemographic category and then performed a series of random-effects meta-analyses to aggregate results for the seven sociodemographic variables that were assessed consistently across countries. When pooled across countries, the categories for each sociodemographic characteristic with the highest mean gratitude included those who are older, women, married, immigrants, retired or self-employed, have completed 16 + years of education, and attend religious services more than once a week. Sociodemographic differences in gratitude varied to some extent by country. Our findings enhance existing knowledge about the distribution of gratitude and sociodemographic disparities in gratitude, and provide preliminary evidence about which groups might be strategic targets for interventions to promote gratitude.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41042-025-00254-w.