Mexico has been revealed as the most body-confident country in the world, with almost a third of its population feeling ‘completely satisfied’ with the way they look, while only 16 per cent of Americans feel the same about their appearance.
New research compiled by market research group GFK, which interviewed 27,000 people online over age 15 and from 22 countries, and found that more than half of the world’s population are satisfied with their physical features, in one way or another.
The results show that a whopping 74 per cent of Mexicans claim they are happy with the way that they look; 29 per cent are ‘completely satisfied’, while 45 per cent are ‘fairly satisfied’.
The confidence of Mexico was closely followed by that of Turkey (71 per cent), Ukraine (65 per cent) Brazil (65 per cent), then Germany and Argentina (both 62 per cent), with the U.S. (60 per cent) following close behind.
At the very bottom of GFK’s global body-confidence list is Japan, with 38 per cent of those surveyed saying they are ‘not at all satisfied’ or ‘not too satisfied’ with their appearance, followed by 20 per cent of people in the UK, Russia and South Korea.
Overall, total appearance satisfaction is in fact highest in the whole of Latin America.
Following closely behind Mexico, and sitting comfortably in the top five, are Brazil and Argentina. But if we include those who say they are ‘fairly satisfied’ and those who are ‘completely satisfied’, it is in fact Turkey which sits close behind Mexico, at 71 per cent.
When looking specifically at teenagers and how they feel about their looks, the survey found that they’re only slightly more self-critical than adults.
16 per cent of 15- to 19-year-old’s were found to be ‘not too satisfied’ with their looks, compared to between 12 and 13 per cent of people aged between 20 and 59.
Interestingly, women were also found to be only slightly more critical about their looks than men.
When comparing male and female responses, the survey surprisingly shows that the opposite sex tie when it comes down to feeling happy about the way that they look. 43 per cent say they are ‘fairly satisfied’, while 12 per cent are ‘completely satisfied’.
Men are, however, much more inclined to show neutrality about this question than women; 31 per cent of men were on the fence about their looks, claiming to be ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’ with their look, compared to 27 per cent of women who felt the same way.
On the other hand, 14 per cent of women said that they were ‘not too satisfied’ with their looks, compared to 11 per cent of men; four per cent of women are not at all satisfied, compared to 3 per cent of men.
