Surprise, Surprise: Manila Is the Most Loving Capital City in the World

(SPOT.ph) How one expresses love is largely dependent on the type of culture they grew up in. Asians aren’t known to be the most affectionate race group, but Filipinos are challenging this stereotype—and we have the data to prove it.

Looking at Twitter, word-search tool Crossword Solver found that Manila has 1,246 loving tweets for every 100,000 tweets, which makes it the most loving capital city across the globe. Loving tweets can range from slang spellings like “love u” to several variations of the heart emoji.

We'll have to add in a note that this research is exclusive of Filipino-specific terms like kilig, gigil, hugot, and marupok that are being used every day to portray a certain type of love. Imagine just how much bigger that number actually is.

Also read: Marupok Alert: PH Has the Most Love-Related Playlists in Southeast Asia

Not a first for the Philippines

You might be thinking: this could just mean that Filipinos are highly addicted to Twitter, hence having more tweets. That could be true, but a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations revealed that 57% of Filipinos reported to be “very happy” with their love life. No more room left for skepticism here.

Previous international studies have also reflected our huge capacity to love. In a 2006 to 2007 study, Gallup named the Philippines as the country with the most widespread feelings of love at 93%. After all, it isn't just our partners who can make us feel loved. Family and friends continue to be an important part of Filipino culture, too.

Meanwhile, Crossword Solver named Guatemala as the most loving country with 2,217 loving tweets for every 100,000 tweets and Ireland as the least loving country in the world with 134 loving tweets for every 100,000 tweets.

Crossword Solver is a U.S.-based platform dedicated to all things, well, words. The word-search tool set off on this research to find out just how often people from across the globe say "love you" online.