Survey in 142 places around world reveals in which countries people take greatest pleasure in eating – and least

The study asked about 1,000 people in 142 countries and locations, from Australia to Algeria, whether they had enjoyed the food they had eaten in the previous seven days.

Those countries famous for good eating, France and Italy, are perhaps predictably higher up the table than the UK, but Britain’s cooks might feel aggrieved to also be behind places like Denmark, Nepal and Mongolia.

By contrast, people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, where staples include cassava and rice, were the least happy with their daily meals. They were also least likely to say their food was mostly healthy and were also among the places where people felt they had the least choice.

Wealth isn’t everything when it comes to food enjoyment, however. The highest level of enjoyment was in the Caribbean country of Puerto Rico, where coconuts and mangos are abundant and popular dishes of red beans and rice, and roast pork are seasoned with hot sauce.

Across the globe, people who enjoyed their food were 1.29 times more likely to be thriving compared with others who did not enjoy the food they ate. Individuals who said they had lots of choice were 1.45 times more likely to have higher well-being than those who did not say this.

Overall, people living in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean were most happy with what was on their plates with an average satisfaction score of 96%. The least satisfied diners were in sub-Saharan Africa (72%), followed by north Africa (81%), eastern Asia and the Arab states (both 82%). These were also the areas where people said they had had the least choice of types of food over the previous seven days.

The study concludes: “Individuals who feel like they have a variety of choices in their food options and consume food they find enjoyable and nutritious are significantly more likely to have higher subjective well-being than those who do not feel this way about their food, even when controlling for other factors which are known to shape subjective well-being, such as income, education and age.”