The Philippines most romantic of all APAC nations in McCann Worldgroup’s survey

While Valentine’s Day has become a holiday celebrated in many countries around the world, attitudes about love and the way it gets expressed vary significantly among nationalities. Those looking for Valentine’s Day bliss across Asia Pacific may want to heed the results of a just-completed McCann Worldgroup* survey of 30,000 people spanning 29 countries revealing which nationalities are most likely to whisper words of love, which are the most/least likely to gift, and which are cynics about love. 

Saying those words we want to hear…

Expressive Chileans claim to say “I love you” a whopping 32 times a week, more than any other nationality. Next up: Colombians at 27 times a week, followed by Argentineans, Mexicans and South Africans. Filipinos are the most romantic of all Asia Pacific nations who rank in the top 10 at 17 times a week.

The Japanese are at the other end of the spectrum, rationing those three little words to once a week. Similarly, in neighboring China and Hong Kong 3 times is the norm, while for South Korea and Singapore 4 times is typical. This isn’t to say, of course, that these cultures are any less loving than the people of other countries, rather that some cultures tend to be less effusive.

*These findings, among many others, were part of a broad cultural exploration by McCann Worldgroup entitled “The Truth About Global Brands,” which set out to understand the cultural values that makes countries across the world both similar and unique.

How about gifts…

Chileans walk the talk, sharing top honors for most gifts given per year (16) with Argentineans and the British. The British  also rank buying a gift for a loved one as their #1 most pleasurable shopping experience.  Other top gift-givers are Russians, Colombians and the Dutch, tying at 14 per year. Americans give a respectable 12 gifts per year.

Who are–and who aren’t–the world’s Valentine’s Day romantics?

The Chinese lead the list of global romantics with 76% believing that “everyone wants to marry for love”, followed by those from Hong Kong, Russia, South Korea and Germany, with Americans coming in towards the bottom of the list at just 24%. Similarly, despite the pervasiveness of romantic comedies, Americans, the British, Australians and Singaporeans ranked lowest on the list of those who believe that “everyone everywhere wants to fall in love”, while Russians ranked first (81%) in believing that the world wants love sweet love.

The research entailed interviews with 30,000 people in 29 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Spain Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.