Happiness during each president's tenure

Every president since 1991, ranked by how the happiness changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.

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Results

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#	President	In office	Total	Per year
1	Yoon Suk Yeol	10 May 2022 – 4 Jun 2025	+0.09 steps 2021 → 2024	+0.03 steps/yr
2	Moon Jae-in	10 May 2017 – 10 May 2022	+0.08 steps 2016 → 2021	+0.02 steps/yr
3	Park Geun-hye	25 Feb 2013 – 9 Dec 2016 from 2013	−0.11 steps 2013 → 2016	−0.04 steps/yr

Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last count complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that count had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in steps; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. steps, 0 to 10 on the life ladder · World Happiness Report, Figure 2.1 data (Gallup World Poll): life evaluation, the national average answer to Gallup's question of where on a ladder from 0 (the worst possible life) to 10 (the best) people stand today; each point the average of three years of surveys, dated at the middle one, with the WHR's 95 % interval from 2019; 2013 is not published · South Korea data · as of Sep 2026.