The Hope Barometer examines people’s expectations, wishes, and hopes about their personal and social future. It takes place annually in around twenty countries.
The Hope Barometer was launched in 2009 as an annual, broad-based public survey on the hopes of people in Switzerland. The reason for its creation was twofold. Europe tends to focus more on problems, risks, fears, and worries than on future opportunities, possibilities, and positive developments. The media, in particular, report almost daily on crises and disasters, whether in the economy, politics, or connection with society and the environment. On the other hand, the phenomenon of hope has been studied little or not in German-speaking countries. For this reason, the hope barometer empirically investigates the background and correlations of a positive attitude toward the future and makes the findings available to the general public.
The central objective of the Hope Barometer is to gain open and unbiased access to people’s experiences and ideas in connection with the phenomenon of hope. It examines how people themselves experience hope, what basic assumptions, attitudes, and world views are behind it, what personal hopes arise from it, what people do to remain hopeful and to fulfill their hopes, which people in their lives give them hope, and what they experience when they feel hopeless in life. People can experience hope differently due to their different life experiences, personal values and beliefs, current situations, and social environment. Furthermore, the hope barometer indicates what people can do to develop personally, overcome challenging situations, and perhaps even surpass themselves. By making the research results accessible to a broad audience in German-speaking countries, the aim is to encourage people to think and act with a sense of hope.
The survey consists of various topics and questions. Around half of the questions form the core of the questionnaire and are repeated annually to enable year-on-year comparisons. These include questions on the general feeling of hope, satisfaction, and prospects in the economic, political, environmental, and social areas, the most essential personal hopes, and the sources of hope. The other half consists of annual focal points, such as resilience, overcoming hopelessness, positive and negative feelings, spirituality, harmony, etc.
Since the beginning of the Hope Barometer, we have aimed to reach as many people as possible, as the survey is also intended to encourage them to reflect personally on their hopes, strengths, and ideas for the future. The participation of many people in the survey was possible thanks to the cooperation with popular daily newspapers such as 20 Minuten in Switzerland. Although strict representativeness cannot be guaranteed due to the survey method, the composition of the participants is very heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, marital status, education, and employment and satisfactorily reflects the diversity of our social structure.
Report
Hope Barometer
Switzerland
“Hope between prosperity, climate change and AI”
Report
Hope Barometer
Switzerland
“Between Anxiety and Hope”
Report
Hope Barometer Switzerland
"Hope despite a bleak future"
Report
Hope Barometer Switzerland
"Perceived Stress, Coping Strategies and Personal Growth"
Report
Hope Barometer Switzerland
"How resilient is the population in times of Corona?"
Report
Hope Barometer Switzerland
"Long-term future expectations"
Report
Hope Barometer Switzerland
"Personal Values"
Report
Hope Barometer Switzerland
"World- and Self-views"
Confidence despite worries: Most people in Switzerland are satisfied with their lives but are concerned about global and social developments. Given their opportunities and skills, more people in Switzerland could get involved in tackling environmental and social challenges, both professionally and voluntarily.
More confidence in solutions needed: There is a lack of confidence that politics and business can solve social and environmental problems. Individual confidence can serve as a basis for collective confidence when working together on new solutions.
The desire for sustainability and a sense of community: People strive for more sustainability, social cohesion, and peace. Most respondents reject progress without consideration for the environment and social values.
Technology as an opportunity and a risk: Technological advances offer hope but also raise fears – they should be more closely aligned with people’s needs and wishes.
K. N. M. Government Arts and Science College Kanjiramkulam, India
Università degli Studi di Cagliari Dipartimento di Pedagogia, psicologia, filosofia
Hellenic Open University, Greece
Dean, Faculty of Educational Sciences Universitatea ”Stefan cel Mare” Suceava, Rumania
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Tharina Guse is a counseling psychologist and obtained an MA (Counseling Psychology) degree from the Potchefstroom University (now North-West Univer-sity) in 1989. She was in full-time private practice for the next 15 years providing psychotherapy for children, adolescents, and adults. In 2003, she obtained her PhD (Psychology) from Potchefstroom University. She returned to academia in 2005 and joined the University of Johannesburg. Since April 2018 she is a professor and Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Pretoria. Currently, she serves on the Professional Board for Psychology of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). She is also President of the recently founded South African Positive Psychology Association (SAPPA). Her research focuses on positive psychology in general and in particular on psychosocial well-being, positive psychology interventions, and psychological strengths such as hope and gratitude. Closely aligned with this broad focus she also conducts research on the application of hypnosis for the promotion of mental health and well-being.
Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic
Alena Slezackova, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Her scientific interests include mainly hope, mental health, and mindfulness. She is a founder and director of the Czech Positive Psychology Centre (CPPC), a member of the Advisory Council of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), a member of the boards of the European Network for Positive Psychology (ENPP) and the Mindfulness Research and Practice Network (MRPN) at Masaryk University. Alena is a certified Resilience Practitioner and a member of several international research projects. She is the author of the first comprehensive monograph on positive psychology in the Czech language and many publications in positive psychology and health psychology.
Institut Catholique de Paris, France
Charles Martin-Krumm is full Professor in Psychology at the Ecole de Psychologues Praticiens de Paris (EPP). He is the director of the Vulnerability, Capability, Recovery research team at EPP. He is researcher at INSERM INSPIIRE UDL in University of Lorraine and associate at the Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées (IRBA), in Brétigny. He is received the Fellow Award of the International Positive Psychology Association. Author of eleven books in psychology and sport sciences, and more than a hundred scientific publications, his research themes are related to quality of life and education in the fields of school, physical activity and sports, health and organisations.
Kazimierz Wielki University of Bydgoszcz, Poland
Dr hab. Elżbieta Kasprzak, psychologist, professor at the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Researcher of the determinants of careers and their consequences for the well-being of employees. An important area of her scientific interests are various aspects of positive functioning at work, job satisfaction, hope and passion at work, as well as the conditions and effects of job crafting and proactivity at work. Since 2015 she has been participating in the international research network of the Hope Barometer.
Kazimierz Wielki University
Dr. Karolina Mudło-Głagolska is a psychologist – researcher and practitioner. She is employed as an assistant professor in the Department of Work and Organizational Psychology at Kazimierz Wielki University. Her research interests include passion (mainly for work and studying), hope, emotion regulation, and human functioning in various life contexts. She is also a co-author of the Polish adaptation of the Perth test battery.
University of Lodz, Poland
Dr. Patryk Stecz is a psychologist and assistant professor at the Institute of Psychology, University of Lodz, Poland. His work focuses on applied clinical psychology, with particular interest in hope, well-being, and suicide prevention. He completed his Ph.D. at the Medical University of Lodz and has published around 40 scientific works exploring topics such as attitudes towards suicide, religious coping, and risk behavior in vulnerable populations.
Dr. Stecz has been an active member of the Polish Suicidology Association’s Executive Board (2014–2017, 2021–2025) and is involved in research related to positive suicidology. Since 2008, he has provided psychological support to students and staff with disabilities at the Technical University of Lodz, helping create an inclusive environment for personal development. Additionally, he serves on the scientific boards of several journals, including Advances in Psychiatry and Neurology.
Dr. Stecz’s research and practice reflect his commitment to improving mental health and well-being, with a particular focus on the role of hope in overcoming life’s challenges.
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Dr. Dorit Redlich-Amirav is an occupational therapist who works in the field of hope and mental health, mainly with family members. She completed her doctoral studies in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Hope in mothers of adult children with mental illness in an environment of socio-political conflict. She teaches in the field of hope and mental health in the school of health professions at Tel Aviv University. On the subject of hope, she teaches a ‘Circle of Hope’ course at Levinsky-Wingate Academic Center and at the Ono Academic Campus. In addition, she leads the Hope Index project in Israel.
University of Malta, Malta
Carmel Cefai PhD (Lond), FBPS, studied education at the University of Malta, health psychology at the University of Stirling (UK) and educational psychology at the University of Wales (UK). His PhD at the Institute of Education, University of London, focused on schools as contexts for the promotion of resilience. He is founding Director at the Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, and Professor (and former Head) at the Department of Psychology, Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta. He is Honorary Chair of the European Network for Social and Emotional Competence (ENSEC), joint founding editor of the International Journal of Emotional Education, and a member of the coordinating team of the European Commission Network of Experts on Social Aspects of Education and Training (NESET). His research interests are focused on how to create healthy spaces which promote the resilience, wellbeing and psychological wellbeing of children and young people and mental health promotion in schools. He has led various local, national, European and international research projects in social and emotional learning, mental health in schools, and resilience and wellbeing in children and young people. These include ten EU funded projects (three as coordinator) and various national projects. He works in close collaboration with other partners in the area in various universities and agencies across the world. He has more than 100 publications, including peer reviewed journal papers, books, research reports and book chapters. One of these, RESCUR Surfing the Waves, A Resilience Curriculum for Early Years and Primary Schools (2015)has been translated in more than ten languages.
Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Ph.D. Valle Flores-Lucas is Associate Professor at Valladolid University, in the Psychology department. She led a Postgraduate course on Positive Psychology and Humour sense at Valladolid University. Her research work has been centred on two main research lines: developmental language and communication disorders; and in the last years she started another research line on the field of Positive Psychology, mainly in the study of hope and its relations with other positive strengths and its applications on education. She participates in the Hope Barometer survey project lead by Ph.D. Andreas Krafft from St. Gallen University since some years ago. She has several scientific publications on both research lines in research books and scientific articles, also she has participated in many international and national congress. She is member of the Spanish Positive Psychology Society and of the Scientific Association of Educative Psychology.
Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Helena Águeda Marujo has a PhD in Psychology. She is Associate Professor at the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Politicas of the University of Lisbon, where she holds the positions of Executive Coordinator of master’s and PhDs programs in Development Human Resources Policies; of Scientific Coordinator of the Postgraduate Degree in Applied Positive Psychology; of researcher at the Centre for Administration and Public Policy (CAPP); and of member of the Ethics Committee. She is the Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair in Education for Global Peace Sustain-ability at the University of Lisbon. Helena is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Positive Psychology Association and of the Board of Directors of the European Positive Psychology Network.
Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), India
Dr Rajneesh Choubisa is Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, (BITS) Pilani, Pilani Campus, India. He is a behavioral scientist by training and specializes in Positive Psychology from IIT Delhi. He has carried out meaningful research in the area of positive psychological measurement, positive organizational psychology and well-being promotion. He has rendered his expertise for reviewing projects at the European Commission’s Institute of Advance Studies, among others. He is actively providing his expertise in the capacity of reviewer and academic editor for many top-quality journals in the field. As an Indian collaborator of the Hope Barometer project, he has keen interest in exploring positive psychological variables theoretically, and also testing the practicability of these variables through customized, theory-driven, tailor-made programs and interventions.
K. N. M. Government Arts and Science College Kanjiramkulam, India
Dr. Chitra S. Nair started her career as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Government K.N.M. College, Thiruvananthapuram under University of Kerala in 2015. Her ongoing research focuses on positive psychology, improving quality of life and happiness of the marginalized, social exclusion and human rights issues, life course of centenarians and understanding the indigenous approaches to “Healthy Ageing”. Her social engagements include advocacy for aged and women through local self-governments, NGOs, student level interventions, industrial partners and academic institutions. Her ongoing engagements include the Major Research Project from National Commission for Women, India to conduct research study titled ‘Reproductive Rights and Choices of Fisher Women in Coastal Kerala—an Ethnographic Enquiry’ and the Minor Research Project from Indian Council for Social Science Research for the research study on Intimate Partner Violence.
Università degli Studi di Cagliari
Dipartimento di Pedagogia, psicologia, filosofia
She is a member of the Italian Association of Psychology (A.I.P., Experimental Session), of the Italian Association of Ethology. She is a referee for “Psychological Research” and “International Journal of Psychology”. Her main research interest focuses on the following areas: the methodological issues of research on cognitive activity in human and animal: Vigilance and Attention, Language, Perception and Memory, as well as Cooperative Learning, Ethological studies of gulls, BFC and changes after treatment in children and adults and Theater therapy in adults and children. She’s been the Scientific Responsible of a number of research projects: 2020 Creation of Help Desk for the Prevention of New Thecnology Additions Fondazion. She’s the author of 180 scientific works, including monographies, chapters of books, scientific papers and proceedings published in national and international Journals.
University of Nigeria, Nigeria
JohnBosco Chika Chukwuorji is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu state, Nigeria. He holds a BSc. degree in Psychology and MSc degree in Clinical Psychology. In 2019-2020, he was a Fulbright scholar/faculty affiliate at Cleveland State University, Cleveland Ohio, where he carried out lab work for his PhD thesis. He has reviewed over 205 manuscripts for reputable journals. He has been editor of the Nigerian Journal of Psychological Research since 2015 and was appointed Editor of Socioscope (a quarterly news magazine of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka) in 2020. He also won the 2017 Early Career Scholar Grant for the 12th African Regional Workshop of International Society for Studies in Behavioural Development (ISSBD) at University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. In April 2018, he was at University of Potchefstroom, South Africa as an invited speaker for the first African Positive Psychology Conference (APPC 2018). He researches mental health status and services for vulnerable populations such as internally displaced persons. Mr Chukwuorji has written 64 published journal articles, 4 book chapters and 2 published conference proceedings. His research has covered such topics such as psychological wellbeing, meaning in life, posttraumatic growth, psychotraumatology, emotion regulation, and affective disorders.
Hellenic Open University, Greece
Sophie Leontopoulou is Professor in Psychology at the School of Social Sciences at the Hellenic Open University. She holds an Msc in “Research Methods in Psychology” and a PhD in “Psychology” from the University of Reading, U.K. She was a member of staff at the University of Ioannina, Greece, and she has also taught Psychology at the University of Crete, the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, and the University of Piraeus. She served twice as elected Coordinator of the Developmental Psychology Branch of the Hellenic Psychological Society, and was founding member of the Positive Psychology Branch of the same Society. She is a State Scholarships Foundation Scholar and a Fulbright Foundation Scholar. She has published her research in eminent greek and international scientific peer reviewed journals, and she has presented her work in scientific conferences in Greece and abroad. She has collaborated with international scholars in various projects. Her research interests focus on Positive Developmental Psychology. She systematically studies positive psychosocial development of children, adolescents and emerging adults, resilience, flourishing, character strengths, positive emotions, and positive psychological interventions.
The University of Tokyo, Japan
Kyoko Amai is a Project Assistant Professor at The University of Tokyo. She works at The Center for Early Childhood Development, Education, and Policy Research (CEDEP) and conducts a large-scale longitudinal survey commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Her personal research interests center primarily on access and quality of care for adolescents who do not seek nor accept support from others. In particular, she focuses on identifying internal and external protective factors and lifelong development influences of adolescent non-support-seekers. Her project aims to suggest innovative support methods that approach non-support-seekers’ internal changes besides current social policies. She was awarded a Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC1) and Restart Postdoctoral Fellowship (RPD) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Dean, Faculty of Educational Sciences
Universitatea ”Stefan cel Mare” Suceava, Rumania
Dr. Aurora Adina Colomeischi is an associate professor at the Faculty of Sciences in Education at Ștefan cel Mare University in Suceava, Romania. She coordinates the master’s programs School Counseling and Emotional Education and Resilience in Education, as well as the undergraduate Psychology program.
With a multidisciplinary background as a trained teacher, counselor, and registered psychologist, Dr. Colomeischi’s work centers on advancing mental health, resilience, and emotional well-being in educational contexts. She has successfully led numerous Erasmus+ projects, developing and implementing innovative curricular frameworks that integrate social-emotional learning (SEL), resilience, and mental health practices into schools.
Dr. Colomeischi’s research interests focus on children’s well-being, school resilience, and the application of SEL strategies in education. Her contributions to the field extend beyond academia, as she frequently delivers workshops and training sessions for educators both nationally and internationally, addressing the critical need for resilience and mental health initiatives in schools.
She has served as a chair of the European Network for Social and Emotional Competence for the past four years, actively collaborating with global experts to advance the field. Additionally, Dr. Colomeischi is a member of several international professional associations in school psychology and positive psychology, reflecting her ongoing commitment to research and development in these domains.
In her academic roles, she teaches courses on positive psychology, counseling, and emotional education at both undergraduate and graduate levels, equipping the next generation of educators and psychologists with evidence-based tools to promote mental health and resilience in diverse educational environments.
Department of Psychology and Pathopsychology, Institute of Educational and Psychological Studies, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Eva Vancu, Ph.D., senior researcher of Psychology at the Department of Psychology and Pathopsychology, Institute of Educational and Psychological Studies, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. Involved in several Czech-Slovak and Canadian/U.K. res. projects in the area of emotional intelligence, coping strategies, anti-stress prevention programs, mental health and resilience. Continuously involved in emotion regulation and interpersonal relations research in adolescents and young adults. She is a member of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS), the European Association for Developmental Psychology (EADP) and member of the research team – the Resilience Research Centre. She is the author many publications in health psychology and pathopsychology.
University Tunis El Manar, Tunis
Dr. Feten Fekih-Romdhane is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry Ibn Omrane, Razi University Hospital, Tunisia; and a researcher involved in research projects with the Research Unit “Early Intervention in Psychosis” in the University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis in 2008, and obtained her Medical Doctorate in 2014 and her PhD degree in 2018. She trained in psychiatry in Razi University Hospital (Tunisia); and trained to early intervention in the specialized outpatient clinic for emergent disorder in adolescents and young adults in Sainte-Anne Hospital (Paris, France). She holds Master’s Degrees in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (2018) and in Cognitive Remediation (2019). She also has a Certificate in Leadership and Management in Health from the University of Washington (2017). She was ICD-11 Site Coordinator (Tunis site) for the Global Clinical Practice Network (2017-2018), and is currently Associate Member of the American Psychological Association.
Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Lebanon
Having joined USEK in 2015 as a lecturer, Souheil Hallit is currently an associate professor and Head of the Department of Research at the School of Medicine and Medical Sciences. He is an expert in statistics, including bivariate analysis, multivariable analysis, survival analysis, validation and psychometric properties analyses. His research interests focus on public health and epidemiology. Much of his work has been on validating existing scales and/or developing new ones in Arabic to facilitate the diagnosis and screening of symptoms of diseases among Arabic-speaking populations. In addition, Souheil has published 572 peer-reviewed articles/chapters (as of December 2023) on various public health issues, like eating disorders, pharmacy, psychology, psychiatry, smoking, etc. He has also presented multiple conference papers both as abstracts/posters and oral presentations in local and international conferences. Additionally, he has directed and co-directed 45 thesis projects for medical and PhD students. In 2022, he won the first prize in the Innovation and Research award event organized by the USEK Higher Center for Research. Two of his articles were among the top cited articles in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care (Wiley Publisher) in 2019-2020.
Centre for Positive Change, Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Mark Sinclair is the co-founder of the Centre for Positive Change, established with Olga Varsos in 2019 as a research institute. This ‘research focus’ is a direct result of Mark’s doctoral studies in e-commerce, financial services & health corporate advisory experience with AT Kearney and KPMG, and his passion for objective research-based practice, developed teaching in the MBA program at RMIT University. During his career, Mark has advised senior executives at over 100 businesses in a broad range of industries throughout Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East including strategic assignment with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Department of Human Services, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Department of Education, Telstra and the Reserve Bank of Indonesia. Mark has a Bachelor of Applied Science, Master of Business Administration (MBA), Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), Diploma of Financial Planning and Certificate 4 in Training & Assessment (TAE 40116).
Centre for Positive Change, Melbourne, Australia
Olga Varsos is the co-founder of the Centre for Positive Change, established in 2019 as a research institute. Olga is Clinical Social Worker, Accredited Emotional Intelligence and Career Coach with experience working in the education, community and management sectors. Olga has 40 years of experience as a social worker and professional coach. Together with Robyn Chellew, she developed a signature two stage coaching process, which includes The POWER Coaching Model and The GOAL Coaching Conversation which draw on strategies from coaching, positive psychology and hope theory – all of which are proven to build the self-awareness, self-belief and sense of ownership, enabling participants to create their own inspiring plans and strengthen the emotional skills they need to achieve their goals on an ongoing basis. Olga has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business (Human Resource Management) from Deakin University and a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Melbourne.
Akademie für Positive Psychologie, Vorarlbert
Bertram Strolz ist Psychotherapeut und Sozialpädagoge. Er ist Gründer und Leiter der Akademie für Positive Psychologie, Coach und Vortragender. Seit mehr als 30 Jahren begleitet er, als Pädagoge und Psychotherapeut, Menschen in deren unterschiedlichsten Lebenswelten und unterstützt sie in ihren individuellen Bedürfnissen.
Nach 16 Jahren Tätigkeit in verschiedenen Fachbereichen des Instituts für Sozialdienste machte er 2001 den Schritt in die Selbstständigkeit – als Therapeut, Musiker und Kulturmanager. Sein Interesse an so Vielem, was die menschliche Gemeinschaft ausmacht und gedeihen lässt, und an den persönlichen Besonderheiten des Menschen, ließen ihn immer wieder neue Formen der Begleitung und neue (Menschenkultur-) Projekte entwickeln.
In seiner Arbeit möchte er Möglichkeiten zur Selbstorganisation von Systemen eröffnen – in Familien, Schulen oder Betrieben. Er möchte Menschen dabei unterstützen, mit ihren eigenen Fähigkeiten ihr Leben wohlwollend und optimistisch zu gestalten.
Als integrativer Gestalttherapeut verbindet er aktuell die hypnosystemischen Konzepte mit den Forschungsergebnissen der Positiven Psychologie – ein neues und äußerst freudiges Projekt, welches nun in der Gründung dieser Akademie seinen Rahmen für die weitere Entwicklung findet.
