Finding love: Which PH city, regions to go to

MANILA, Philippines—A previous poll once found that most of the population in the Philippines reported feeling loved on a typical day. New studies showed where precisely in the country is the most loving city and where to find love online.

A few years ago, a poll by the US-based analytics firm Gallup found that the Philippines is the world leader when it comes to love—with 93 percent of its population reported feeling loved.

For Valentine’s Day 2023, new data found which city in the Philippines is the most loving city in the world. Another study showed which is the best region in the country to find a significant other online.

Manila: Most loving major city

“Love is very much in the Philippines,” a recent global study said, specifically in the country’s capital—Manila.

A recent study by Crossword Solver named Manila as the most loving capital city in the world.

The study analyzed a sample of geotagged tweets from cities around the world, particularly those that contained the different versions of the phrase “love you” and with variations of the heart emoji.

GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan

From there, the researchers were able to calculate the proportion of “loving tweets” per 100,000 tweets overall—and identify which major city was more loving than others.

According to the researchers, for every 100,000 tweets posted in Manila, there were 1,246 tweets that contained phrases like “love you,” “love u,” “<3 u,” or a combination of a type of heart emoji followed by “u” or “you.”

GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan

“Love is at the core of most families, and immediate and extended family are considered very important in Filipino culture,” researchers of the study noted.

“Younger generations are also known to wear their heart on their sleeve online: the concept of hugot (a Filipino word meaning to express deep emotion) is spread among friends, family, and romantic partners through poignant quotes, music, and videos,” they added.

The City of Manila was followed by Guatemala City (1,224 loving tweets per 100k), Luanda in Angola (1,180), Jakarta (974), and Mexico City (948).

Finding love online in PH

While Manila was tagged as the most loving capital in the world—and in the Philippines—data analysis website Picodi.com identified where in the country most people could easily find their better half online.

The study examined statistics of searches related to finding a significant partner online—including searches linked to popular dating apps and general phrases like “dating website”—and made a ranking of the most online regions.

“To make the comparison fair, we juxtaposed the number of queries with the latest PSA data on the population in individual regions,” analysts at Picodi.com said.

The study found that those who are in Central Visayas, Metro Manila, and Davao Region are most likely to find their significant other online.

GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan

Internet users in those regions visit dating websites “more frequently than the country average,” making it also easier than average to find love online in those areas.

People in Bicol, Mimaropa (Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), and ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao)—now officially known as BARMM—were least likely to find their special someone online or through dating apps.

Data showed that in those regions, people lean toward finding a lover offline, whether on the street, at work, or at social parties.

Unrequited love

Despite the recent research findings, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that many Filipinos had experienced unrequited love.

In a survey on December 10-14, 2022, of 1,200 adults nationwide, the SWS found that one in three—30 percent—of Filipinos have experienced unrequited love.

GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan

At least 33 percent of Filipinos also said they confessed love for a friend—half or 50 percent of them experienced one-sided love.

When asked about their personal assessment of their love life, 57 percent of respondents said they are “very happy,” while 25 percent believed theirs could be happier.

On the other hand, 17 percent said they have no love life.

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