Wellbeing
Through Cooking

Global Insights Into Cooking
Enjoyment and Eating Together

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Table ofContents

29 Chapter 4: Eating With
Someone You Know andDownsides of Dining Alone

2 Executive Summary

30

Section 4.1: Background and Discussionof Methodological Limitations

31

Section 4.2: How Communal or Solo
Dining Was Measured on the Survey

2

What This Report Covers

3

What This Report Finds

32

4 Chapter 1: Introduction

Section 4.3: Communal Eating andPositive Emotions

34

Section 4.4: Communal Eating
and Thriving

5

Section 1.1: Cooking Enjoyment

36

6

Section 1.2: Eating With Others and theConsequences of Eating Alone

Section 4.5: People Who Regularly Ate
Together Were More Socially Connected

37

Section 4.6: The Downsides of Dining
Alone? A Closer Look at Those Who Did
Not Eat With Someone They Know

7

Section 1.3: Core Concepts

8 Chapter 2: How Much Does
the World Enjoy Cooking?
9

Section 2.1: Where Do People Enjoy
Cooking (or Not Enjoy Cooking)?

20

Section 2.2: Who Enjoys Cooking?

23

Section 2.3: Cooking Affordability

39 Chapter 5: Cooking
Enjoyment and theFrequency of Cooking
at Home: A Research
Collaboration With Cookpad
41

24 Chapter 3: The Relationship
Between Cooking
Enjoyment and Attitudes
About Life and Society

Section 5.1: The Joy of Cooking? A
Cluster Analysis of Cooking Enjoyment
and Frequency Worldwide

45 Chapter 6: Conclusion
47 Appendix Material

25

Section 3.1: Cooking Enjoyment andSubjective Wellbeing

27

Section 3.2: Cooking Enjoyment andPositive Emotions

47

A.1: Results of Multivariate Analysis ofThriving in One’s Life Evaluation Index

28

Section 3.3: Social Relevance ofEnjoying Cooking

48

A.2: Survey Method

49

A.3: Survey Questionnaire50

A.4: Regional Groupings Used inThis Report

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Executive Summary
The Ajinomoto Group, a leading global food company committed to helping people“Eat Well, Live Well,” sought to understand the role two simple but important
activities — cooking and regularly dining with family or friends (or “communal
eating”) — play in people’s lives. Past research has found that cooking and communal
eating are associated with a range of social and emotional benefits. However, thesefindings have yet to be tested across cultures or in a larger, regionally diverse groupof countries.1

What This Report Covers
Similarly, this report sought to explore what typesof quality-of-life-related outcomes are associatedwith eating with friends or family on a frequentbasis, including feelings of social connectedness,
perceptions of physical health and experiencing awide range of positive emotions (all of which aremeasured on the Gallup World Poll). This analysis also
examines people who are the opposite of frequent
communal diners — those who habitually eat alone.
If frequently dining with others is a boon for one’ssocial and emotional health, then a reasonable
hypothesis — and one supported by past research,though within a limited number of countries — would
be that dining solo can have an adverse effect onthese feelings.

This report seeks to address this research gap,
expand the current state of knowledge of how
cooking and communal eating factor into people’s
lives worldwide, and examine whether these activities
have any relationship with one’s overall sense of
wellbeing. The analysis draws on a set of new
survey questions designed by the Ajinomoto Groupand Gallup asking people if they enjoy cooking andhow often they eat lunch or dinner with someone
they know. The questions were fielded in over 140
countries as part of the 2022 Gallup World Poll, whichannually asks people around the world about a wide
range of topics, including perceptions of their current
and future lives (a measure of wellbeing).
A key research objective of this report was todetermine if cooking enjoyment contributes (in astatistical sense) to whether an individual has a highlevel of wellbeing, defined as rating one’s current andfuture life highly. It was also important to understand if
any such relationship remains intact when controllingfor individual characteristics or attitudes that may,in turn, be correlated with wellbeing.

1

Beyond addressing these high-level questions, thisreport also dives into the results of the AjinomotoGroup survey module, providing the first global
measurement of how many people enjoy cooking aswell as where (region or country) and among whom
(demographic groups) enjoyment of cooking is either
more or less common.

Farmer, N., & Cotter, E. W. (2021, April 12). Well-being and cooking behavior: Using the positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, andaccomplishment (PERMA) model as a theoretical framework. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 560578. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.560578

2

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

What This Report Finds

58%

Enjoyed cooking
in the past 7 days

17%

Did not enjoy cooking
in the past 7 days

24%

Did not cookin the past 7 days

Globally, most people (58%) found cooking enjoyable, while 17% said they did not. Twenty‑four percent said
they did not cook at all in the past seven days — a group predominantly consisting of men. In fact, just as many
men worldwide said they enjoyed cooking as said they did not cook in the past seven days (40%).

1.2xmore likely
to be thriving

Digging deeper into this relationship, there
appears to be a meaningful connection between
cooking enjoyment and subjective wellbeing, evenafter considering other aspects of an individual’s
background and living circumstances.
A multivariate analysis finds that people who
enjoyed cooking are 1.2 times more likely to be
thriving than those who did not enjoy cooking,all else being equal.

Though cooking is broadly popular, enjoymentof the activity may be tied to income both at thecountry and individual level, with more prosperous
countries and individuals more likely to say they
enjoyed cooking.

31% 21%THRIVING
among those
who enjoyedcooking in thepast 7 days

THRIVING
among those
who did not
enjoy cooking in
the past 7 days

Cooking enjoyment appears to be related tohigher subjective wellbeing (or “thriving” in
one’s life evaluation); 31% of those who said
they enjoyed cooking were considered to be
thriving, compared to 21% of those who did not
enjoy cooking.
3

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In line with past research, theAjinomoto Group survey founda positive relationship between
subjective wellbeing andsharing a meal with someone
you know on a frequent basis.

By contrast, in somecircumstances, habitually dining
alone was associated withfeeling less socially connected,
poorer perceived physical healthand lower life ratings.

Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Chapter 1: Introduction

4

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 1.1

Cooking Enjoyment
skill level, which may discourage would-be cooks
or prevent others from regularly engaging in thepractice. Furthermore, cooking takes time, which past
research has shown is an insurmountable barrier for
many people.6

Cooking is an activity that has a wide
range of benefits beyond its core functionof producing safe and edible food.
From a policy perspective, many governmentalorganizations around the world — including indeveloped and developing countries — havechampioned home cooking as essential to combating
obesity and poor nutrition, outcomes often associatedwith eating away from home frequently.2 Cooking canalso help improve one’s economic health, as many
find that preparing meals at home is less expensive
than dining out.3

These concerns, as well as other challenges likeaffordability, are likely key reasons why past research
has found that many people do not like and evenavoid cooking.7 Any effort to promote home cooking
must address these issues and, fundamentally,
whether people enjoy the activity. Crucially, mostresearch on cooking enjoyment — and cooking
attitudes more generally — has been conducted in anarrow set of countries, including the United Statesand many Western European countries. Solving thisdata inequality is a key research objective of the
Ajinomoto Group. Therefore, the Ajinomoto Group
partnered with Gallup to ask a simple but importantquestion on the 2022 Gallup World Poll:

This is just a taste, so to speak, of the abundantadvantages associated with cooking. Beyond
satisfying one’s taste buds and providing nutrition,cooking has the power to strengthen social, familial,and even romantic bonds and is a mechanism forpeople to express or connect with their heritage or
identity.4 Moreover, home meal preparation can beemotionally rewarding, as it encourages domestic
chefs to think creatively and hone their skills andprovides a tangible sense of accomplishment. Suchemotional and cognitive benefits have led researchers
to assert that cooking is not merely a health-related
behavior but one that represents “human flourishing.”5“Thinking about the past 7 days, in general,
did you enjoy cooking? If you didn’t cookin the past 7 days, please just say so.”In addition to shining a light on factors andcharacteristics associated with cooking enjoyment(or a lack thereof), the analysis will focus on thepotential outcomes related to how one views the valueof cooking, particularly for individual wellbeing andother quality-of-life measures.

However, even as evidence for the benefits of
cooking continues to accumulate, the extent to whichthese messages resonate with the public is unclear.
For all its advantages, cooking can require a certain
2

Mills, S., White, M., Brown, H., Wrieden, W., Kwasnicka, D., Halligan, J., Robalino, S., & Adams, J. (2017). Health and social determinants and outcomes ofhome cooking: A systematic review of observational studies. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.8497

3

Minkow, S., Gray, V., Reiboldt, W., & Gonitzke, D. (2017). Cooking attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy in relation to fruit and vegetable intake among young
adults. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117(9), A21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2017.06.232

4Farmer, N., Touchton-Leonard, K., & Ross, A. (2018). Psychosocial benefits of cooking interventions: A systematic review. Health Education & Behavior, 45(2),167-180. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198117736352

5

Farmer, N., & Cotter, E. W. (2021). Well-being and cooking behavior: Using the positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment(PERMA) model as a theoretical framework. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 560578. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.560578

6

Adams, J., Goffe, L., Adamson, A. J., Halligan, J., O’Brien, N., Purves, R., Stead, M., Stocken, D., & White, M. (2015). Prevalence and socio-demographic
correlates of cooking skills in UK adults: Cross-sectional analysis of data from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. International Journal of Behavioral
Nutrition and Physical Activity, 12(1), 99. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-015-0261-x

7

Minkow, S., Gray, V., Reiboldt, W., & Gonitzke, D. (2017). Cooking attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy in relation to fruit and vegetable intake among young
adults. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117(9), A21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2017.06.232

5Copyright © 2023 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 1.2

Eating With Others and the Consequencesof Eating Alone
divorce rates also play a part. On the other endof the age continuum, people over the age of 65— a growing demographic due to people living longer— are more likely than younger people to live alone.11

Another topic of concern covered by the
Ajinomoto Group module on the Gallup
World Poll addressed how frequently
individuals share a meal with anotherperson. Sharing meals with others has
the potential to improve people’s healthas well as confer other critical social andemotional benefits.

While existing research has explored the possible
repercussions of eating in solitude, a holistic,
cross‑cultural examination has been conspicuously
absent. Therefore, the Ajinomoto Group study aims
to discern the potential life benefits of communal
meals and understand if frequently dining alone
is detrimental to one’s wellbeing. To answer thisresearch query, the Ajinomoto Group asked:

Yet, solo dining — or regularly eating alone — may beon the rise in many countries, especially in affluent,aging nations.8 One reason for this trend is theincreasing number of people living alone. A 2021
analysis of living patterns in 75 countries across theworld found that the prevalence of single-personhouseholds was on the rise in 53 of the countries
studied and, in 17 countries, the percentage ofsingle-person households in 2019 was more than
one‑quarter, including countries in Europe, North
America, South Korea and Japan.9 Additionally, theU.S. Census Bureau found that 27.6% of Americans
lived in single-person households in 2020, a
substantial increase from 7.7% in 1940.10“Thinking about the last 7 days …?
On how many days did you eat lunchwith someone you know?
On how many days did you eat dinnerwith someone you know?”

This pioneering study surveyed participantsfrom over 140 countries through the Gallup World
Poll. Gallup typically surveys 1,000 individuals in eachcountry or area using randomly selected, nationally
representative samples and asks a standard set ofcore questions that has been translated into the major
languages of the respective country.

There are a number of reasons why people are more
likely to live alone now compared to the past. Youngpeople are getting married and having children at anolder age than their predecessors did, and higher

8

Koponen, S., & Mustonen, P. (2022). Eating alone, or commensality redefined? Solo dining and the aestheticization of eating (out). Journal of Consumer
Culture, 22(2), 359-377. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540520955219

9

Cohen, P. N. (2021). The rise of one-person households. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 7, 237802312110623. https://doi.
org/10.1177/23780231211062315

10 Anderson, L., Washington, C., Kreider, R. M., & Gryn, T. (2023, June 8). Share of one-person households more than tripled from 1940 to 2020. United States
Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/06/more-than-a-quarter-all-households-have-one-person.html
11 Molina-Mula, J., Gallo-Estrada, J., & González-Trujillo, A. (2020). Self-perceptions and behavior of older people living alone. International Journal ofEnvironmental Research and Public Health, 17(23), 8739. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238739

6

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

To better understand the relationship between food and wellbeing, the Ajinomoto Group and Gallup relied on
several Gallup World Poll core questions and indexes, including:“Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladderrepresents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you.
On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?”“Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladderrepresents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you.
Just your best guess, on which step do you think you will stand in the future, say about five years from now?”
Gallup calculated a Life Evaluation Index that combines the responses from these two questions and classifies
individuals as “thriving,” “suffering” or “struggling.” Individuals who are thriving rated their current lives as a “7”or higher and their future lives at an “8” or higher. Individuals are classified as suffering if they rated their current
AND future lives as a “4” or lower. All other individuals are classified as struggling.

Section 1.3

Core Concepts
This report focuses on the following:• the current rate of cooking enjoyment around the world and how these feelings varied across regions,country income classifications and countries or areas• a deep dive into who enjoys cooking in terms of their demographic profile and other notable attributes orcharacteristics of interest- Given the well-documented differences between men and women in cooking-related matters,
special attention will be paid to how these characteristics varied between men and women.
• outcomes associated with feelings of cooking enjoyment, including subjective wellbeing, experiencing
positive emotions and other quality-of-life measures included on the Gallup World Poll• the relationship between eating with someone you know and wellbeing, as well as other propitious
outcomes, with a particular focus on individuals who eat alone• the results of the collaboration between the Ajinomoto Group and Cookpad — a recipe-sharing multinational
Japanese organization- Cookpad has been measuring how often people cook lunch or dinner each week. The analysis examines
Cookpad’s 2022 data in conjunction with the Ajinomoto Group’s cooking enjoyment data.

7

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Chapter 2: How Much Does
the World Enjoy Cooking?

In this chapter:• Overall, nearly six in 10 people worldwide (58%) said they enjoyed cooking in the past seven days,
while 17% said they did not enjoy cooking in the past seven days; the remaining 24% indicated they
did not cook in the past week or said they were unsure.
• Northern America and Northern, Southern and Western Europe were the two regions where people
were most likely to say they enjoyed cooking in the past seven days (74% and 73%, respectively).
Cooking enjoyment was lower for lower-income countries and increased with country income group.
• Cooking enjoyment was also tied to an individual’s standard of living affordability: People who
indicated they were satisfied with their standard of living or that they were “living comfortably” on theirhousehold income said they enjoyed cooking at a higher rate than individuals who were not satisfied.

8

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 2.1

Where Do People Enjoy Cooking(or Not Enjoy Cooking)?
Notably, the global figures conceal stark genderdifferences: 76% of women worldwide said they
enjoyed cooking, compared with 40% of men.
The fact that 40% of men said they did not cook in thepast seven days (suggesting this group seldom takes
the lead in cooking) may be the primary reason for thecooking enjoyment gender gap, but it still does not
fully explain it. Even among only those individuals who
had cooked in the past week, men (66%) were lesslikely than women (84%) to enjoy the culinary process.

Nearly six in 10 people worldwide(58%) said they enjoyed cooking in thepast seven days. Significantly fewer(17%) said they did not enjoy cooking
in the past seven days; the remaining
24% indicated they did not cook in thepast week.12

FIGURE 1

How much did the world enjoy cooking in 2022?
Global results by gender% DI D NOT ENJOY COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

% ENJOYED COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

% DI D NOT C OOK
in the past 7 days

Global

58

17

24

Men

40

20

40

Women

76

15

9

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/”Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

12

Respondents were also able to select the response options “Do not know” or “Refuse to answer.”

9

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

2.1.1 Cooking Enjoyment Varied Across Regions, Fueled by
Gender Differences
Cooking enjoyment rates varied considerably across world regions. In Northern America and Northern, Southernand Western (NSW) Europe, nearly three in four people said they generally enjoyed cooking in the past sevendays, putting these two regions ahead of all other areas.13 Majorities said they enjoyed cooking in four additional
regions: Latin America and the Caribbean (67%), South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific (66%), Eastern Europe(63%) and Sub‑Saharan Africa (56%). In the remaining regions, about half of individuals said they generally
enjoyed cooking recently.
In every region of the world, a strong majority of women said they enjoyed cooking recently: More than sevenin 10 women said this in all but one region, with Eastern Asia being the outlier (59% of women there said they
enjoyed cooking).
FIGURE 2

Enjoyment of cooking in 2022, by region and gender% DI D NOT ENJOY COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

% ENJOYED COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

% DI D NOT C OOK
in the past 7 days

Arab States

Total
Men
Women

50
32
73

11
9
13

39
59
13

Central andWestern Asia

Total
Men
Women

50
23
76

13
12
13

37
64
10

Eastern Asia

Total
Men
Women

47
35
59

27
25
29

26
40
12

Eastern Europe

Total
Men
Women

63
47
76

13
12
15

22
40
7

Latin America andthe Caribbean

Total
Men
Women

67
53
81

9
8
10

24
39
9

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

13 The regions used in this report correspond with the subregional units used by the International Labour Organization. A listing of those regions can be foundat the following link: https://ilostat.ilo.org/resources/concepts-and-definitions/classification-country-groupings/

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together
F I G U R E 2 C O N T.

Enjoyment of cooking in 2022, by region and gender% DI D NOT ENJOY COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

% ENJOYED COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

% DI D NOT C OOK
in the past 7 days

Northern
Africa

Total
Men
Women

48
19
78

10
7
12

42
74
9

Northern
America

Total
Men
Women

74
68
79

10
9
11

17
23
11

Northern,
Southern andWestern Europe

Total
Men
Women

73
69
76

13
13
13

14
18
11

South-Eastern Asia
Menand the Pacific
Women

Total

66
52
80

19
25
13

15
23
7

Southern Asia

Total
Men
Women

49
23
74

24
30
17

27
45
8

Sub-SaharanAfrica

Total
Men
Women

56
34
77

18
21
16

25
45
7

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

Eastern Asia also stands out for the relatively high rate of people who said they did not enjoy cooking recently(27%).14 Among Eastern Asia countries and territories, lack of enjoyment of cooking was highest in South Korea(37%, the highest country-level percentage worldwide) and Japan (26%).
Regions where levels of cooking enjoyment were relatively low also tended to be places where far fewer men
said they enjoyed cooking recently than women. This finding was especially true in Northern Africa, Central andWestern Asia and Southern Asia — regions where women were at least 50 percentage points more likely thanmen to say they found their recent cooking experience pleasurable.

14

Eastern Asia does not include China, as the Gallup World Poll did not interview in that country in 2022.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

2.1.2 Country Income-Level Results
Looking at results by World Bank country income classifications, cooking enjoyment rates were lower
in low- and lower-middle-income countries (50% and 54%, respectively) and rose to 63% among
upper‑middle‑income countries and 67% in high-income countries.
FIGURE 3

Cooking enjoyment, by country income group and gender% DI D NOT ENJOY COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

% ENJOYED COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

% DI D NOT C OOK
in the past 7 days

Low income

Total
Men
Women

50
29
71

21
22
21

28
49
8

Lower-middle
income

Total
Men
Women

54
30
77

21
26
15

25
43
8

Upper-middle
income

Total
Men
Women

63
46
78

12
11
12

25
42
9

High income

Total
Men
Women

67
60
74

14
13
15

19
26
11

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

While the percentage of women who enjoyed cooking varied only slightly across country income levels(71% in low-income countries; 77% in lower-middle; 78% in upper-middle; and 74% in high-income
countries), responses among men varied widely (ranging from 29% in low-income countries to 60% in
high‑income countries).

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

2.1.3 Country-Level Results
The following country groupings highlight the top five countries in each group with the greatest share of residents
who enjoyed cooking in the previous week, as well as the five countries where cooking enthusiasm was lowest.15
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA (MENA)
Saudi Arabia claimed the top spot for cooking enjoyment among MENA countries, with 65% of the country’s aged
15 and older population saying they enjoyed cooking in the past seven days. Libya placed second, with 59% of
people saying the same. Notably, both countries exhibited the lowest rates of individuals not cooking in the pastseven days — indicating that people in those countries cooked often and most enjoyed it. Kuwait, Morocco and
Iraq rounded out the top five in terms of cooking enjoyment.
Slightly more than one in three people in Yemen (35%) said they enjoyed cooking — the lowest level of any country
in the region. Lebanon, Algeria, Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories also placed in the bottom five in this region.
FIGURE 4A

Cooking enjoyment: Top- and bottom-ranking countries in the Middle East and North Africa% Enjoyed cooking in past 7 days

% Did not enjoy cooking in past 7 days

% Did not cook in the past 7 days

Top Five Countries

65

Saudi Arabia

9

59

Libya

27

14

27

Kuwait55

10

35

Morocco

53

12

35

Iraq

52

10

38

Bottom Five Countries
Palestinian Territories

44

7

Tunisia

41

14

Algeria38

Lebanon

37

9

Yemen

35

14

49
45

15

47
52
52

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022
15 The global region definitions used elsewhere in this report are not used for this analysis, as several regions have fewer than 10 countries. For the purposes ofthis section, the regions have been rolled into six larger regions: Middle East and North Africa; Southern & Eastern Asia and the Pacific; Europe; the Americas;
Central and Western Asia; and Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

SOUTHERN & EASTERN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
There was a wide range in rates of cooking enjoyment in Southern & Eastern Asia and the Pacific, spanning from
83% in the Philippines to a low of 34% in Afghanistan.
Among the top-ranking countries in this region (the Philippines, Cambodia, Australia, Laos and New Zealand),at least three in four people said they enjoyed cooking, while the rate of non-participation in cooking activities
tended to be just over 10%.
Afghanistan was at the opposite end of the spectrum and reported the lowest cooking enjoyment globally.
More than four in 10 Afghans (44%) said they did not cook in the past seven days — among the highest ratesof all countries and likely a reflection of the acute challenges many Afghans face regarding food security
and affordability.16
Taiwan occupied the second-lowest ranking in terms of cooking enjoyment, at 39%. Similar to Afghanistan,
43% of Taiwan residents said they had not cooked in the past seven days, though likely for very different
reasons. Numerous studies have found that Taiwanese eat out frequently and at rates that eclipse other wealthy
countries or areas.17
Pakistan, South Korea and Singapore rounded out the bottom five. While South Korea stands out for its
record‑high percentage of people who said they did not enjoy cooking (37%), it was also a rare instance of acountry where more women said they did not enjoy cooking (40%) than men (34%).

16 In 2022, the Gallup World Poll found that 86% of people in Afghanistan said there was a time in the past 12 months when they could not afford food — thehighest rate of any country or area polled by the Gallup World Poll in 2022 and statically tied with a 2020 Central Africa reading as the highest rate for any
country over the past 16 years (source: Evans, M. D. (2022, December 1). Taliban plunge Afghans into economic ruin. Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/
poll/405524/taliban-plunge-afghans-economic-ruin.aspx)
17 Lin, H.-W., & Liu, W.-Y. (2023). How to enhance the food self-sufficiency rate of Taiwan? Applying the theory of planned behavior to decision making for foodaway from home. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 12, 100629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2023.100629

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together
FIGURE 4B

Cooking enjoyment: Top- and bottom-ranking countries in Southern & Eastern Asia andthe Pacific% Enjoyed cooking in past 7 days

% Did not enjoy cooking in past 7 days

% Did not cook in the past 7 days

Top Five Countries

83

Philippines

7

10

Cambodia

78

6

16

Australia

76

12

12

Laos

75

14

11

New Zealand

74

13

12

Bottom Five Countries

46

Singapore
South Korea

42

Pakistan

40

Taiwan(Province of China)

39

Afghanistan

15

38
37

21

21
16

34

21

38
43
44

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

Special Focus
Japan, the home country of the Ajinomoto Group, does not appear in the list of the five countries in Southern &Eastern Asia and the Pacific that enjoyed cooking the least. Slightly fewer than one in two Japanese residents(49%) said they enjoyed cooking in the past seven days. This overall figure conceals a substantial difference
between men and women — as is the case in many countries. In Japan, 63% of women said they enjoyedcooking recently, compared to 34% of men.
Within the five Eastern Asia countries surveyed in the 2022 Gallup World Poll, Japan’s level of cooking enjoyment
falls in the middle of the pack — below Mongolia and Hong Kong (S.A.R. of China) but above South Korea
and Taiwan. However, Japan does stand out among these countries in one area: Japanese men (42%) were
notably more likely than women (8%) to say they did not cook in the past seven days. This 34-percentage-point
difference between genders in cooking participation was larger than in any other country in Eastern Asia.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

EUROPE
Italy led all European countries in cooking enjoyment, with 81% of Italians saying they generally enjoyed cooking
in the past seven days. Spain took second place with a cooking enjoyment rate of 78%. The United Kingdom andSlovenia were close behind, at 77% and 76%, respectively. Switzerland and Malta tied for fifth place at 74%.
Four in 10 people in Croatia said they enjoyed cooking recently, the lowest of all European countries. Nearly as
many Croatians said they did not cook at all in the past seven days (39%) as said they enjoyed cooking. Bulgaria,
Montenegro, Serbia and Lithuania were also at the bottom of the rankings. Like Croatia, substantial percentagesof these countries — most of which have faced significant food supply disruptions and price increases since
Russia invaded Ukraine in March 202218 — said they did not cook at all in the past seven days.
FIGURE 4C

Cooking enjoyment: Top- and bottom-ranking countries in Europe% Enjoyed cooking in past 7 days

% Did not enjoy cooking in past 7 days

% Did not cook in the past 7 days

Top Five Countries
Italy

81

6

13

Spain

78

10

11

United Kingdom

77

10

12

Slovenia

76

11

12

Malta

74

12

14

Switzerland

74

14

11

Bottom Five Countries

49

Lithuania
Serbia45

Montenegro

44

Bulgaria

43

Croatia

40

22
15
13

24
37
43

22
19

34
39

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Among top-ranking countries, Malta and Switzerland “tied” for the fifth-ranking European country in terms of cooking enjoyment.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

18 Laaninen, T. (2022, April). Russia’s war on Ukraine: EU food policy implications. European Parliamentary Research Service. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/
RegData/etudes/ATAG/2022/729368/EPRS_ATA(2022)729368_EN.pdf

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

AMERICAS
Argentina exhibited the highest rate of cooking enjoyment across the Americas (comprising Northern andSouthern America and the Caribbean), with 79% of people indicating they enjoyed cooking in the past sevendays, followed by El Salvador at 78% and Canada at 75%.
With six in 10 people saying they enjoyed cooking, the Dominican Republic takes the least amount of pleasurefrom the activity in the region. Other countries in the bottom five include Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Puerto
Rico, with cooking enjoyment rates varying from 66% to 64%.
FIGURE 4D

Cooking enjoyment: Top- and bottom-ranking countries in the Americas% Enjoyed cooking in past 7 days

% Did not enjoy cooking in past 7 days

% Did not cook in the past 7 days

Top Five Countries
Argentina

79

8

13

El Salvador

78

8

14

Canada75

1213Venezuela

74

Costa Rica

73

8

18

6

20

Bottom Five Countries
Ecuador66

Colombia

65

10

25

Brazil64

1026

Puerto Rico

64

13

Dominican Republic

60

13

13

21

24
25

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

CENTRAL AND WESTERN ASIA
The Central and Western Asia region has 11 countries or areas in total — meaning nearly every state makes the
top or the bottom five on the list. Cyprus (a country sometimes classified as European) showed the highest rateof cooking enjoyment, at 66%. Northern Cyprus, Georgia, Armenia and Israel rounded out the top five.
Azerbaijan exhibited the lowest rate of cooking enjoyment, at 45%. Türkiye, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan andKazakhstan also appeared on the bottom end of the list.
FIGURE 4E

Cooking enjoyment: Top- and bottom-ranking countries in Central and Western Asia
% Enjoyed cooking in past 7 days

% Did not enjoy cooking in past 7 days

% Did not cook in the past 7 days

Top Five Countries

66

Cyprus924

Northern Cyprus

58

17

24

Georgia

58

Armenia57

834

Israel

54

13

32

13

29

Bottom Five Countries
Kazakhstan

52

Kyrgyzstan

52

13

33

8

39

Tajikistan

48

12

38

Türkiye

47

13

39

Azerbaijan

45

13

40

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

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SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Mauritius and South Africa were effectively tied for the highest cooking enjoyment rates in this region at 70%
and 68%, respectively.
Mauritania was on the other end of the list, where only 40% of people enjoyed cooking in the past seven days,
followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (43%). Notably, among countries in the bottom five of theregion, the Gambia had the most people who didn’t cook (37%). It is worth emphasizing that all bottom-fivecountries — as well as many countries in this region more generally — face major challenges concerning foodaffordability and security, an issue that would have obvious implications for individuals’ ability to enjoy cooking.
FIGURE 4F

Cooking enjoyment: Top- and bottom-ranking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa% Enjoyed cooking in past 7 days

% Did not enjoy cooking in past 7 days

% Did not cook in the past 7 days

Top Five Countries
Mauritius

70

4South Africa

68

11

24
21

Botswana

63

17

20

Zambia

63

15

22

Togo

61

18

20

Bottom Five Countries
Sierra Leone

48

The Gambia

47

Zimbabwe46

Democratic Republicof the Congo

43

Mauritania

40

30
15

21
37

22

31

32
26

24
33

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. % “Do not know”/“Refuse to answer” responses are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 2.2

Who Enjoys Cooking?
In general, cooking enjoyment rates were fairly similar across demographic groups,
such as age cohort, educational attainment, employment status or where a person
lives (i.e., in an urban or rural area), with one exception: gender. Across all majordemographic groups, women were substantially more likely to say they enjoyedcooking recently than men.
AGE GROUPEDUCATION LEVEL

Overall, men aged 15 to 24 expressed the lowest
rates of cooking enjoyment at 35%. Cooking
enjoyment among men rose slightly to 40% among
those aged 25 to 34 and essentially remained stable
among the older age cohorts, at around four in 10.

Women did not show much variation by educationlevel, with a steady rate of cooking enjoyment of
76% across education groups, while men showedmuch greater variation. Half of all men with tertiary
education (such as attaining a college or university
degree) said they enjoyed cooking, while this rate
stood at 32% among those with elementary levelsof education.

Among women, 80% of 25- to 34-year-olds reported
enjoying cooking, compared to 72% of those aged
15 to 24. Cooking enjoyment among women did nototherwise meaningfully change with age, with thenotable exception of women aged 65+, among whom
the figure falls to 70%.
EMPLOYMENT STATUS

URBANICITY

Women employed full-time for themselves indicatedthe highest rates of cooking enjoyment at 81%, while
those who were out of the workforce indicated thelowest at 74% — suggesting that cooking enjoyment
may be tied to household income. Meanwhile,
unemployed men had the lowest rate of cooking
enjoyment at 34%, while those employed full time byan employer had the highest at 45%.

While women living in rural areas indicated the highest
levels of cooking enjoyment, at 78%, those living incities indicated the lowest, but by a small margin,
at 75%. Men living in rural areas also exhibited thehighest rates of cooking enjoyment (41%), while thosein towns and semi-dense areas had the lowest (37%).

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together
FIGURE 5

Cooking enjoyment, by demographic characteristics and gender
Percentage who enjoyed cooking in the past 7 days
Men

Women

15-24

100

40

80 +4035-49

41

79 +3850-64

41

76 +3565+

43

Employed full time for an employer

45

Employed full time for self

70 +2776 +31
81 +47

34

Employed part time, do not want to work full time41

78 +37

Employed part time, want to work full time42

79 +37

Unemployed

Elementary education or less (up to 8 years of basic education)

77 +4334

76 +4432

Secondary to Tertiary (9-15 years of education)

Urbanicity

76 +3343

Four years beyond high school and/or
received a 4-year college degree
Rural areas

74 +3638

Out of workforce

Education

72 +37

35

25-34

Age
Employment

0

50

41

76 +2678 +37

Towns and semi-dense areas

37

77 +40

Cities40

75 +35

Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Men were less likely to cook than women: How does this affect theircooking enjoyment?
Since 2018, Cookpad — a recipe-sharing multinational Japanese organization committed to tracking eating andcooking habits — has partnered with Gallup to include questions about people’s cooking habits in the Gallup
World Poll. One consistent finding from that research is that, in virtually every country in the world, there is apredictable and intractable “cooking gender gap” (i.e., the difference between the average number of meals
cooked by women minus the average number of meals prepared by men), with women shouldering most
cooking responsibilities.
Is there a relationship between the cooking gender gap and cooking enjoyment in a country? For women,
the answer appears to be no. However, this is not the case for men. Generally speaking, in countries where
the cooking gender gap was relatively large — meaning women cooked significantly more than men — thepercentage of men who said they enjoyed cooking was low. By contrast, in countries with a modest cooking
gender gap, significant majorities of men said they enjoyed their recent cooking experience. These findings
suggest men are just as able to derive joy from cooking, provided they are willing to engage in the activity.
FIGURE 6

Percentage of men who enjoyed cooking in each country compared to cooking gender gap

Percentage of men who enjoyed cooking in the past 7 days

100

80

ITA

ESP

AUS

ARG

CAN
FIN

SVN

FRA

60

LAO

KHM
SLV

GTM
NAM

40

SLE

NPL

SGP

JPN
MLI

20

ETH

MRT
PSE

GRC
LBN

0

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
Gender gap in number of meals cooked per week

PAK
YEM
7.0

8.0

Note: Data about average number of meals cooked per week comes from the 2022 Cookpad-Gallup home-cooking survey.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group and Cookpad/Gallup 2022

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9.0

Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 2.3

Cooking Affordability
Income and food affordability are often barriers to cooking enjoyment. As has
already been shown, this relationship is true at the country level, with low- andlower-middle-income countries enjoying cooking less than higher-income countries.
A similar dynamic is apparent at the individual level,
which is the focus of this section. Specifically, thisanalysis considers how cooking enjoyment rates differ
depending on how people answered two Gallup World
Poll questions which measure some aspect of anindividual’s financial wherewithal, including:“Which one of these phrases comesclosest to your own feelings about yourhousehold’s income these days — living
comfortably on present income, getting
by on present income, finding it difficult
on present income or finding it very
difficult to get by on present income?”“Right now, do you feel your standard ofliving is getting better or getting worse?”

Overall, people who indicated that they were satisfied with their standard of living were more likely to enjoy
cooking than those who were dissatisfied (by seven points). Similarily, people who said they were living
comfortably on their present income were more likely to have enjoyed cooking in the past seven days than those
who said they were finding it difficult or very difficult to get by (by eight percentage points).
FIGURE 7

Cooking enjoyment, by satisfaction with standard of living and subjective income
Satisfaction with standard of living% Dissatisfied
Enjoyed cooking in past 7 days
0

20

-7 53
40

% Satisfied
60

60

80

100

Satisfaction with subjective income% Finding it difficult
or very difficult
Enjoyed cooking in past 7 days
0

20

-8 56

40

Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

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Ajinomoto_RPT_EXT_enUS_112123_kp% Living
comfortably
64
60

80

100

Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Chapter 3:
The Relationship Between
Cooking Enjoyment and Attitudes
About Life and Society

In this chapter:• People who enjoyed cooking were more likely to have higher subjective wellbeing as measured by the
Gallup World Poll Life Evaluation Index than those who did not enjoy cooking or did not cook at all.
This relationship was stronger for men than for women.
• People who enjoyed cooking were 1.2 times more likely to be “thriving” in their life evaluations thannon-cooks, even after controlling for a range of demographics and personal characteristics.
• Cooking enjoyment was tied to other positive outcomes measured on the Gallup World Poll, including
experiencing positive emotions and having friends or family members to count on for help.
Does happiness while cooking translate to a greater sense of wellbeing? This section examines thisquestion from several angles using items on the Gallup World Poll related to an individual’s quality of life,
including subjective wellbeing.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 3.1

Cooking Enjoyment and Subjective Wellbeing
Globally, individuals who said they generally enjoyed cooking in the past seven days
were substantially more likely to be “thriving” in their life evaluation than those who
said they did not enjoy their recent cooking experience or did not cook at all.
Nearly one in three people who found cooking enjoyable (31%) rated their lives positively enough to beconsidered thriving, compared with 21% of those who said they did not enjoy cooking and 24% of those who
did not cook at all.
FIGURE 8Life Evaluation Index, by cooking enjoyment% ENJOY ED COOKING
in the past 7 days

31

Thriving

21
58

Struggling
Suffering% DI D NOT ENJOY COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

11

% DI D NOT COOK
in the past 7 days

24
59

19

61
16

Note: The Gallup World Poll Life Evaluation Index categorizes people as “thriving,” “suffering” and “struggling,” depending on how
they rated their present and future lives. Those who are considered “thriving” rate their life highly on both items; “suffering” represents
people who rated their life poorly for both items. All other individuals are classified as “struggling.”
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

Interestingly, men who said they recently enjoyed their cooking experience were 13 points more likely tobe thriving than men who did not enjoy cooking recently (33% vs. 20%). By contrast, the “thriving boost”
associated with cooking enjoyment was smaller among women: 29% of women who said they enjoyed cooking
recently were thriving in their life evaluations, compared with 23% among women who said they did not
enjoy cooking.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

3.1.1 Happy Cooks, Happy Lives?
FIGURE 9

While the above analysis suggests a concrete
relationship between cooking enjoyment and thriving
in one’s wellbeing, appearances can sometimes be
deceiving, particularly when assessing statistical
relationships. It may be that people who enjoy
cooking generally share a similar characteristic— such as higher educational attainment — that is
associated with higher rates of thriving.

Odds of thriving in the Life Evaluation Index
are 20% higher among those who enjoyedcooking in the past seven days
Odds ratio of “thriving” for “enjoyed cooking in the past
7 days,” after controlling for age, gender, educationlevel, income, marital status, employment, type of area
person lives in, global region and country of residence.

Regression analysis was used to account for thesetypes of complicating factors. This multivariate
statistical technique is able to assess the relationshipof a specific variable (such as whether somebody
said they enjoyed cooking recently) with an outcomeof interest (whether that individual is thriving) while
controlling for all other variables in the analysis. The
model included a range of personal demographics
and other characteristics that may affect how
individuals rate their lives, including householdincome, gender, age cohort, educational attainment,
employment status, marital status, urbanity andcountry of residence.

1.4
1.2

1.2

1.0

1.0

0.8

+0.2

0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0

The analysis revealed that individuals’ feelings aboutcooking remained statistically significant even after
controlling for other factors. In particular, people who
said they enjoyed cooking in the past seven days
were 1.2 times more likely to be thriving than people
who did not enjoy cooking or had not cooked duringthat time.

Did not enjoy cooking
or did not cookin the past 7 days

Enjoyed cooking
in the past 7 days

Note: “Did not enjoy cooking” or “did not cook in the past 7days” is the reference category, meaning the odds are set at 1.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

To see a table showing the full results from thisanalysis, please refer to Appendix 1.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 3.2

Cooking Enjoyment and Positive Emotions
Another quality-of-life measure on the Gallup World Poll is the Positive ExperienceIndex, which measures the emotional or physical wellbeing a person experienced the
day before the survey, including if the person felt well-rested, was treated with respectduring most of the day, smiled or laughed, learned or did something interesting, or
experienced enjoyment.
The Positive Experience Index summarizes people’s
answers to these questions into a single average scoreon a 0-100 scale. A higher score indicates that a person
experienced a greater number of positive emotions.
Consistent with findings that individuals who enjoyedcooking recently tended to rate their lives higher
than people who did not (or did not cook), those
who enjoyed cooking have an edge over others inexperiencing positive emotions. Overall, people who
said they enjoyed cooking in the past seven days had
an average score of 72.3 on the Positive ExperienceIndex, compared to 62.4 among those who said they
did not enjoy cooking — a statistically significant
difference. People who had not cooked at all fell
between these two poles, with an average index
score of 67.5.

There was a similar gulf between feelings about cooking
and experiencing positive emotions among men.
Those who enjoyed cooking had an average Positive
Experience Index score of 74.8 — 10 points higher thanmen who did not enjoy cooking (64.8). Men who did
not cook at all had an index score of 67.1, still notably
below those who had a favorable opinion of their recent
cooking experience.
Among women, those who enjoyed cooking had
an average index score of 71.1, compared to 59.2
among those who did not — a gap of nearly 12 points.
Interestingly, women who did not cook in the pastseven days comprised a relatively small group but
fared about as well as those who enjoyed cooking
on the Positive Experience Index, with an averagescore of 69.0.

F I G U R E 10

Enjoyment of cooking and experiencing positive emotions
Gallup World Poll Positive Experience Index average score by whether a person enjoyed cooking in the past 7 days

ENJOY ED COOKING
in the past 7 days

DI D NOT ENJOY COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

DI D NOT COOK
in the past 7 days

Total

72.3

62.4

67.5

Men

74.8

64.8

67.1

Women

71.1

59.2

69.0

Note: The Positive Experience Index has a scale between 0-100. A higher value indicates an individual experienced a wider range of
positive emotions the day before the survey.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 3.3

Social Relevance of Enjoying Cooking
According to at least one study, skillful cooks tend to have stronger social ties.19
Does a similar relationship exist between cooking enjoyment and the state ofone’s social life?
To address this question, this analysis utilized an itemon the core Gallup World Poll that asked individuals ifthey have a network they can rely on in times of need:Among those who enjoyed cooking in the past sevendays, nearly eight in 10 (78%) said they had someone
they could count on to help — nine points higher
than the share who said the same but did not enjoy
cooking (69%). Among both men and women, those
who enjoyed cooking were substantially more likely
than those who did not to say they had someone they
could count on.

“If you were in trouble, do you have relatives
or friends you can count on to help you
whenever you need them, or not?”F I G U R E 11

Percentage who have someone to count on, by cooking enjoyment and gender
Percentage who said “yes,” they have someone they can count on

ENJOY ED COOKING
in the past 7 days

DI D NOT ENJOY COOKI NG
in the past 7 days

Total

78

69

Men

81

70

Women

77

67

Note: % “No”/”Do not know” responses to having someone to count on question are not shown; Results for those who said they did
not cook in the past 7 days are not shown.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

In sum, these findings seem to support the notion that cooking can brighten one’ssocial life just as it can help improve other facets of an individual’s life.

19 Tani, Y., Fujiwara, T., & Kondo, K. (2023). Associations of cooking skill with social relationships and social capital among older men and women in Japan:
Results from the JAGES. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(5), 4633. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054633

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Chapter 4:
Eating With Someone You Knowand Downsides of Dining Alone

In this chapter:• In line with past research, the Ajinomoto Group survey found a positive relationship between
subjective wellbeing and sharing a meal with someone you know on a frequent basis.
• By contrast, in some circumstances, habitually dining alone was associated with a lower quality of life.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 4.1

Background and Discussion of
Methodological Limitations
Earlier sections of this report explored how people
felt about cooking and how these attitudes may affectother aspects of their lives, including their senseof wellbeing.

If frequently eating with others can be a source of
positive change in a person’s life, it also appears tobe the case that regularly dining alone — or what issometimes referred to as “solitary eating” — may
have a negative influence on quality of life, particularly
when people are eating alone involuntarily or because
they lack friends or family members to dine withregularly.22 Research suggests that solo diners are at
greater risk of experiencing physical health maladies
and depressive attitudes.23

This chapter shifts the attention to
focus on the experience of eating and,more specifically, the extent to which
individuals dine with people they know.

This section compares individuals’ “social” dining
habits (i.e., eating with someone they know)
against an array of measures on the Gallup World
Poll that measure different aspects of individuals’
lives. However, before moving into that analysis,
it is important to discuss how key concepts were
measured on the survey.

Like cooking, the act of sharing everyday meals withfamily or friends — also known as “communal dining”
or “communal eating”20 — is another example of afamiliar, simple activity that appears to be connected
to a wide range of beneficial outcomes with respect
to individuals’ physical and mental health, social
connectedness and relationships. A recent Oxford
study neatly summarized, “The more often people eat
with others, the more likely they are to feel happy andsatisfied with their lives.”21

20 “Communal dining” or “communal eating” can also refer to the act of feasting, which tends to be a form of eating together on a grander scale in terms of
the amount of food prepared and the number of people dining collectively. Feasting is often an activity that has a special purpose or occasion, such as
religious celebrations. While important, this activity is relatively rare and not the focus of this analysis. (Wallis, N. J., & Blessing, M. E. (2015). Big feasts andsmall scale foragers: Pit features as feast events in the American Southeast. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 39, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jaa.2015.01.003)
21 Dunbar, R. (2017). Breaking bread: The functions of social eating. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 3(3), 198-211. https://doi.org/10.1007/
s40750-017-0061-4
22 Jang, S., Lee, H., & Choi, S. (2021). Associations among solo dining, self-determined solitude, and depression in South Korean university students: A crosssectional study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(14), 7392. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147392
23 Ibid.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 4.2

How Communal or Solo Dining Was Measured on
the Survey
A careful review of the survey data, however,revealed that it can still be informative in studying
the relationship between frequent communal
eating (or, alternatively, habitual solo dining) andother quality‑of‑life outcomes, including subjective
wellbeing, experiencing positive emotions and how
people rate their personal health.

The Ajinomoto Group module allows for the firstglobal study of dining frequently with others andits converse — habitually eating alone — using thefollowing two questions:“Thinking about the last 7 days …?
On how many days did you eat LUNCH
with someone you know? [0-7 days]

In that spirit, this chapter will focus on the associationof people eating with someone they know and how
they feel about other aspects of their lives. Instead oflooking at the exact number of days individuals said
they ate lunch or dinner with someone they know, thischapter will focus on three groups: individuals who
ate alone (zero days for either lunch or dinner), people
who ate with others they know infrequently (1-3 daysfor either meal) or those who ate together frequently(4-7 days).

On how many days did you eat DINNER
with someone you know? [0-7 days]”

The phrase “someone you know” was intended toinclude any familiar person in an individual’s life,
including family or household members. However,there is reason to believe that not all respondents
interpreted the question in this manner and instead
believed the question was asking about eatingwith familiar individuals other than respondents’
immediate family (or household) members. Thismisunderstanding appears to have been particularlycommon in parts of Asia and some Middle East
countries but is not limited to those areas.

This focus allows the narrative to sidestep any
discussion of the precise number of days an individual
ate lunch or dinner (except for zero), which may besomewhat misleading due to the issues mentioned
above, but also has the benefit of clarifying certain
relationships, given the reduced number of categories
being compared.

As a consequence of this misunderstanding, Gallup
and the Ajinomoto Group believe many respondents
underreported the number of meals they ate with“someone they know.” For this reason, this report
does not provide a descriptive overview of the resultsof these questions — meaning, the analysis will not
focus on who eats with others more often or where
communal dining is more common.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 4.3

Communal Eating and Positive Emotions
People who ate lunch with someone they know onfour or more days scored an average of 73.9 on the
Positive Experience Index. This figure was slightly
higher than the 70.2 index average for those who atelunch together between 1-3 days and considerably
higher than the 63.4 score among those who did not
eat lunch with someone they know. Findings weresimilar for the number of days people ate dinner withsomeone they know (see below graph).

At the global level, people who
frequently ate together24 were more
likely than those who ate together
infrequently or ate alone to score higher
on Gallup’s Positive Experience Index(see description in Section 3.2).
F I G U R E 12

Positive Experience Index, by number of days people ate meals together
Average Positive Experience Index score
0 days

1-3 days

4+ days

73.9
70.2
63.4

73.6
69.6
64.2

Lunch

Dinner

Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

24

In this chapter, the expression “eating together” is used as shorthand for “eating with someone you know.”32

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

The boost in experiencing positive emotions associated with sharing a meal with others was enjoyed by men
and women alike. As shown below, Positive Experience Index scores rose for both genders in tandem with thenumber of dinners shared with people they know. The same dynamic was at play with respect to eating lunchwith recognizable company.

F I G U R E 13

Positive Experience Index, by number of days people ate dinner together and gender
Average Positive Experience Index score
0 days

1-3 days

4+ days

73.6
69.3
63.8

73.7
69.9
64.6

Women

Men

Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 4.4

Communal Eating and Thriving
Individuals who regularly dined with someone they know were substantially andsignificantly (both in a statistical and meaningful sense) more likely to be thriving intheir life evaluations.
Recall that individuals are considered “thriving” if theyrate their current and future lives highly; Gallup uses
this information to create the Thriving Index, which uses
a score between 0-100 to determine how pervasive thisstate of wellbeing is within a group of interest.25
Globally, those who ate dinner with people they know
at least four days in the previous week had an index
score of 33.3, compared to 25.1 among those who
did so less frequently and 20.7 among those who did
not eat dinner with others. A similar picture emerged
when comparing how frequently people ate lunch withothers they know and their likelihood of thriving in theirlife evaluation.

Women and men were both significantly more likely
to score higher on the Thriving Index if they ate dinnerwith someone they know at least four times in the past
week than those who did so on a less frequent basis
or not at all. While the general pattern was the sameacross genders, women appear to experience a slightly
higher boost in their thriving rate when comparing those
who did not eat dinner with someone they know to
those who did so frequently.

F I G U R E 14

Thriving Index, by number of days people ate dinner together and gender
Average Thriving Index score
0 days

1-3 days

33.3
25.1
20.7

Total

4+ days

31.8
24.1
19.6

Men

34.9
26.3
21.6

Women

Note: The Thriving Index has a scale between 0-100. A higher value indicates a larger number of people within a given group are
considered “thriving” in their life evaluations.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022
25 Respondents who are considered “thriving” are given a score of “1,” while those who are not thriving are given a score of “0.” The final index score is thenmultiplied by 100. When aggregated at a higher level (such as a country, demographic group, global region, etc.), the Thriving Index is no different from providing
the percentage of people within the group of interest who are “thriving.”

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

These results align with a 2017 Oxford study thatfound “the frequency of social meals” (i.e., eatingwith someone you know) was strongly correlated withhigher life satisfaction. That study relied on advanced
statistical techniques to investigate whether dining
with people you know more frequently in and of itself
led to higher life satisfaction — a question which theyanswered in the affirmative.26

These findings suggest that the intersection of age
and gender is worth considering when inspecting
wellbeing trends. The graph below shows how thriving
rates varied by the number of days people ate dinner
together and by gender and age cohort. The clearest
takeaway is that, in general, the pattern was similar:
People who ate dinner more frequently with others
they know saw themselves as living a more fulfilling
life as measured by the Thriving Index.

Additional past research — admittedly, from anarrow set of countries — suggests that men who
eat with others seldomly, if at all, are particularly
more likely to experience adverse physical healthoutcomes (including increased risk for heart disease
and diabetes).27 Women — especially the youngest
and oldest age cohorts — may be more susceptible
to unhappiness.28

However, this relationship varied in degree acrossgender and age cohorts — most notably, the 65+ age
group. Thriving rates among men in this age cohort
were relatively stable, and there was no statisticaldifference between the upper two categories of eating
dinner with others (though those who ate dinneralone had a slightly lower thriving rate). However,
women in this age range saw a sizable improvementin their thriving rate as their rate of dining withothers increased.

F I G U R E 15

Thriving Index, by number of days people ate dinner together, gender and age
Average Thriving Index score
0 days

1-3 daysMen

4+ daysAge 15-29

Age 30-49

Age 50-64

21.2

17.1

19.1

26.4

22.0

33.5
23.0
Women

32.3

26.6
30.7

19.4

26.7
36.4

23.2

21.4

21.5

24.3

Age 65+

33.8

25.6
21.8

27.3

28.9

34.9

33.1

Note: The Thriving Index has a scale between 0-100. A higher value indicates a larger number of people within a given group are
considered “thriving” in their life evaluations.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

26 Dunbar, R. (2017). Breaking bread: The functions of social eating. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 3(3), 198-211. https://doi.org/10.1007/
s40750-017-0061-4
27 Macmillan, A. (2017, October 25). Why eating alone may be bad for you. Time. https://time.com/4995466/eating-alone-metabolic-syndrome/
28 Jang, S., Lee, H., & Choi, S. (2021). Associations among solo dining, self-determined solitude, and depression in South Korean university students: A crosssectional study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(14), 7392. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147392

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 4.5

People Who Regularly Ate Together Were More
Socially Connected
Another important quality-of-life dimension that may be positively affected by eatingwith people one knows is feelings of social connectedness — a concept measured by
the Gallup World Poll Social Life Index.
Like the other indexes reviewed in this section, theSocial Life Index uses a 0-100 scale, with higherscores indicating a greater number of individuals
feeling they have a social support structure andopportunities to make friends in their local city.

week) had higher Social Life Index scores. Those who
frequently ate lunch with others had an average Social
Life Index score of 81.3, compared to 77.7 for those
who enjoyed lunch with familiar faces on an infrequentbasis and 70.7 among those who dined alone. Thesefindings were comparable for frequency of eating
dinner with someone you know, and the relationshipholds when comparing men and women by age cohort.

Consistent with past studies, individuals who ate
together frequently (four or more days in the previous
F I G U R E 16

Social Life Index, by number of days people ate meals together
Average Social Life Index score
0 days

1-3 days

4+ days

81.3
77.7
70.7

80.9
77.2
71.9

Lunch

DinnerNote: The Social Life Index is based on Gallup World Poll questions which measure a respondent’s social support structure andopportunities to make friends. The index has a scale of 0-100, with a higher score indicating an individual is more socially connected.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 4.6

The Downsides of Dining Alone? A Closer Look at
Those Who Did Not Eat With Someone They KnowIf, as the evidence suggests, the act of “eating together” frequently leads to a fuller
life, the seemingly obvious corollary would be that solitary diners may be at risk of
missing out on these benefits.
The survey results show that 2% of people worldwide
are considered solitary diners under this definition.
Most of these individuals (55%) live in high-income
countries or areas — substantially more than the 23%of all people interviewed in the 2022 Gallup World Poll
who live in high-income countries.

To some degree, this supposition is supported byprevious studies that point to tangible consequences
associated with habitually eating alone, including
greater feelings of stress and loneliness29 — factorsthat previous Gallup research has linked to poor
wellbeing.30 Additionally, solitary diners may
experience more health problems than individuals ofa similar demographic profile who do not regularly
eat alone.

Given this imbalance, this analysis will focus on solo
diners in high-income countries only;33 limiting theanalytical scope in this way helps control for therole a country’s economic development can playin shaping how people feel about different aspectsof their lives, including their life evaluation, feelingsof social connectedness and perceptions of theirpersonal health.

“Solitary diners,” for the purposes of this section,
includes only those respondents who said they did
not have lunch or dinner with someone they know inthe past seven days and who also lived alone.31
These strict criteria were imposed for two reasons.
First, it helps address the aforementioned data
issues, as the analysis will focus on respondents who
provided consistent and seemingly valid answers
to the two questions of focus. Secondly, thoseindividuals who live alone and habitually eat alone
are more likely to dine solo due to a lack of options
rather than by choice. Existing evidence suggeststhat those who dine alone on an “involuntary” basis
are at greater risk of experiencing certain downsides
associated with this behavior.32

29 Kwon, Y., Hong, K. H., Park, Y.-K., & Kim, S. (2023). How does the frequency of eating-alone among older people in Korea affect their health and dietarybehavior? Nutrients, 15(9), 2085. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15092085
30 Witters, D. (2023, April 4). Loneliness in U.S. subsides from pandemic high. Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/473057/loneliness-subsidespandemic-high.aspx
31 Gallup determined whether a respondent lives alone based on how they answered separate questions that appeared as part of the core World Pollquestionnaire: “Including yourself, how many people, age 15 or older, currently live in this household,” and “How many children under 15 years of age are
now living in your household?”
32 Jang, S., Lee, H., & Choi, S. (2021). Associations among solo dining, self-determined solitude, and depression in South Korean university students: A crosssectional study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(14), 7392. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147392
33 Solitary diners who do not live alone are not included in this analysis.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

4.6.1 Solitary Diners Rated Their Lives Lower and Felt Less
Connected Socially
Solitary diners in high-income countries appear to perform worse on key quality-of-life measures featured on the
Gallup World Poll than those in high-income countries who ate at least one meal with someone they know in thepast seven days (see below graph).
Solitary diners in high-income countries were three times more likely than their counterparts who ate at least
one meal with someone in the past seven days to be considered “suffering” in their life ratings (15% vs. 5%,
respectively). People who were “suffering” rated both their current and future lives poorly, meaning they were not
only unhappy in the present but had relatively little hope that things would improve soon.
Regarding social connectedness, solitary diners in high-income countries were at a clear disadvantage to those
who ate with someone they know, as reflected by the former group’s Social Life Index34 score of 74.8 versus thenotably higher average of 82.5 enjoyed by the latter group. Similarly, solitary diners had worse perceptions of
their personal health than those who ate with others, as measured by the Personal Health Index.
F I G U R E 17

Solitary diners who live alone vs. those who eat with others: Differences in life evaluation
ratings, feelings of social connectedness and perceptions of physical health
Percentage suffering and average score by group on the Social Life Index and Personal Health Index among
respondents living in-high income countries

100

Solitary diners: Those who did not eat lunch or dinner with someone they know and live alone
Communal diners: Those who ate at least one meal with someone they know in the past week80

74.8 +7.7

60

82.5
65.5 +7.8

73.3

40
20
0

15

+10

% Suffering

5
Social Life Index

Personal Health Index

Note: Respondents who said they did not eat lunch or dinner in the past seven days with someone they know but do not live alone
were excluded from this analysis.
Source: The Ajinomoto Group/Gallup 2022

This overall pattern of solitary diners in high-income countries rating their lives as suffering and feeling lesssocially connected and less healthy than those who ate at least one meal with someone they know holds evenwhen accounting for age or gender.

34 The Social Life Index uses a 0-100 scale, with higher scores indicating a greater number of individuals feeling they have a social support structure andopportunities to make friends in their local city.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Chapter 5:
Cooking Enjoyment
and the Frequency
of Cooking at Home:
A Research Collaboration
With Cookpad

In this chapter:• In 2022, people worldwide cooked an average of 6.4 meals at home each week and ate an average of
10 meals at home.
• Women cooked more frequently than men, with an average gap of 4.7 more meals per week.
• People who said they cook were grouped into five clusters, with the largest including people who
cook often (9.1 meals per week) and love doing it. Three in four people in this cluster were women.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Since 2018, Cookpad, a recipe-sharing multinational Japanese organizationcommitted to tracking the habits of eating and cooking at home, has asked the world
a simple question: How often do you cook or eat at home?
Over the years, through the participation of hundredsof thousands of respondents in over 140 countries,
the data that Cookpad provides has shed light on
important facets of the impact cooking and eating
at home has on people and communities aroundthe world.

One trend has not fluctuated over the past five years:
Women cook far more often than men, a pattern that
holds across regions and demographic groups. In
2018, the gender gap (i.e., the difference between thecooking frequency of men and women) showed thatwomen cooked an additional 5.2 meals on averageeach week. That gap narrowed to 4.0 meals in 2021
before increasing again in 2022 to 4.7 more meals
cooked by women each week. By 2022, women were
cooking an average of 8.7 meals per week, whereas
men were cooking just 4.0.

In 2022, there were signs that many people aroundthe world, and especially in certain regions, werereturning to their normal cooking habits after a slight
uptick in home cooking during the pandemic years.
The average number of lunches and dinners cooked
per week last year was 6.4, down slightly from the 6.7
meal average seen in 2020-21. The current level ofcooking, in fact, is on par with 2018 — the first yearof the Cookpad survey — when people cooked anaverage of 6.5 meals per week.

This section seeks to synthesize findings from the
Ajinomoto Group survey and the 2022 wave of the
Cookpad survey to investigate, in an innovative way,
the relationship between cooking frequency andenjoyment of cooking. Specifically, this joint analysis
utilizes information from both data series to identify
the different types of home cooks around the world.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Section 5.1

The Joy of Cooking? A Cluster Analysis of Cooking
Enjoyment and Frequency Worldwide
This section attempts to identify the different types of cooks around the world using a statistical technique called
cluster analysis that groups data observations (in this case, survey respondents) based on their similarities. In
this context, cluster analysis was used to establish different profiles of home cooks based on their frequency
of cooking and whether they enjoyed the activity, as well as additional background information, including age,gender, employment status and household size. Clustering respondents into distinct groups helps increase
understanding of the inherent organization of these groups of people, thus providing insights for further analysis.
This analysis identified five types of home cooks. While some only cook occasionally but enjoy it, others may
cook often but not enjoy it. Some are employed and do not have much time to cook but do enjoy it when theycook, while others live in large households where the responsibility of cooking is delegated to others. And whilesome cook out of necessity, others do so out of obligation, with expected levels of enjoyment varying between
the two groups.
Of the five “types’’ of home chefs across the world, Joyful Chefs comprise the largest cluster, at 36% of
the global population, while just 7% belong to the Crowded-Kitchen Cooks group.35

F I G U R E 18

Demographic composition of the five types of home cooks
Percentage of respondents falling into each of the five final cluster solutions

Crowded-Kitchen Cooks

7%

Seasoned Culinarians

Joyful Chefs

18%

Home Cooking
Professionals

36%

18%
21%
Reluctant Cooks

Source: The Ajinomoto Group and Cookpad/Gallup 2022

35

Note that respondents who indicated not having cooked in the past seven days were excluded from this analysis.

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What type of cook
are you?
How often do you cookat home? How often doyou eat at home? Do you
enjoy the act of cooking
when you do it? Basedon key demographic
characteristics, such as
gender, age, household
size, employment status
or urbanicity, you will
fit into one of the fivegroups of home cooks.

Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together
F I G U R E 19

Household Size

Age

RegionCrowdedKitchen Cooks

Employment

Seasoned
Culinarians

GenderHome Cooking
Professionals

Cooking
Enjoyment

Reluctant
Cooks

Cooking andEating at Home

Joyful
Chefs

Demographics of the Five Types of Home Cooks

Number of days cooked any meals
at home in past 7 days

9.1

5.0

7.4

9.6

7.0

Number of days ate any meals at home inpast 7 days

10.9

9.7

9.7

11.1

10.3

Enjoyed cooking

100%

0%

100%

99%

76%

Did NOT enjoy cooking

0%

100%

0%

1%

24%

Male

25%

59%

52%

34%

33%

Female

75%

41%

48%

66%

67%

Not full time for an employer

100%

75%

0%

100%

90%

Full time for an employer

0%

25%

100%

0%

10%

Total number living in household

4

4

3

3

11

15 to 34

64%

45%

41%

0%

62%

35 to 64

36%

46%

56%

58%

35%

65 and older

0%

9%

3%

42%

4%

Arab States

2%

1%

2%

1%

5%

Central and Western Asia

3%

2%

2%

3%

2%

Eastern Asia

1%

6%

6%

7%

0%

Eastern Europe

3%

4%

9%

9%

1%

Latin America and the Caribbean

12%

6%

12%

15%

6%

Northern Africa

4%

2%

1%

2%

2%

Northern America

4%

4%

17%

11%

1%

Northern, Southern and Western Europe

6%

7%

16%

18%

1%

South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific

14%

13%

13%

14%

9%

Southern Asia

35%

44%

18%

16%

35%

Sub-Saharan Africa

16%

11%

6%

5%

39%

Source: The Ajinomoto Group and Cookpad/Gallup 2022

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

36%

Joyful Chefs

21%

Reluctant Cooks

18%

Home Cooking Professionals

18%

Seasoned Culinarians

7%

Crowded-Kitchen Cooks

This group cooks often. In fact, they cook 9.1 meals at home per week — nearly
three full meals more than the global average (6.4). They often eat at home, too,
averaging 10.9 meals per week. Enjoyment of cooking is universal in this group.
Notably, three in four Joyful Chefs are women, and they tend to belong to younger
age brackets — 64% are age 34 or younger. People in this group do not tend towork full time for an employer, but they may be employed part time, self-employedor unemployed. Group members live in medium-sized households with three othermembers in all regions of the world, with the largest concentration (35%) residing
in Southern Asia.
This second group of people cooks the least, averaging just five meals per week
— well below the global average. They are also one of two groups that eat theleast at home, with an average of 9.7 meals per week. Reluctant Cooks do not
enjoy cooking at all. The group’s composition is more evenly split between men
and women (59% vs. 41%, respectively), and 25% work full time for an employer.
They live in medium-sized households with three other people and are evenly
distributed between the 15- to 34-year-old and 35- to 64-year-old age groups,
with only a small proportion aged 65 or older. They live across regions but, like
Joyful Chefs, are largely concentrated in Southern Asia.
People in this group cook around 7.4 meals per week, a little over the global
average, but eat 9.7 meals at home per week — well below the global average.
Notably, all Home Cooking Professionals enjoy cooking, and they are evenly split
between men and women. More notably, all members of this group work full time
for an employer, and they tend to live in small households with two other people
across all regions of the world. While 3% of this group are aged 65 and older, therest are split between age groups: 41% are aged 15 to 34, and 56% are 35 to 64.
Members of this group cook the most, with an average of 9.6 meals per week.
They also eat the most meals at home, with an average of 11.1 meals per week.
While 1% do not enjoy cooking, the other 99% love it. Two in three Seasoned
Culinarians are women, and they tend not to be employed full time for an
employer. This group has the largest proportion of seniors aged 65 and older(42%), while the rest are between the ages of 35 and 64. Notably, this group does
not have any individuals aged 15 to 34. They tend to live in smaller householdswith two other people and are found across multiple regions of the world.
The size of households in this group is certainly its most defining characteristic;
they tend to live in large households with 10 other people. People in this groupcook about seven meals per week — almost on par with the global average — andeat about 10.3 meals at home per week. While most of them do enjoy cooking,about one in four do not. Most Crowded-Kitchen Cooks are women, but one inthree are men, and just 10% are employed full time for an employer. The majorityof this group (62%) are between the ages of 15 and 34, 35% are 35 to 64, andthe rest are 65 and older. While individuals in this group live in most regions of theworld, they can primarily be found in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Home Cooking Professionals are more likely than other groups of cooks to rate theirlives positively enough to be considered “thriving”36 (38%), while only about one infive Reluctant Cooks and Crowded-Kitchen Cooks fall into this category.
FIGURE 20

Life Evaluation, by type of home cook
Percentage of respondents indicating various levels of subjective wellbeing across clusters

38%
29%

28%

22%

22%

JoyfulChefs

Reluctant
Cooks

Home Cooking
Professionals

Seasoned
Culinarians

CrowdedKitchen
Cooks

Source: The Ajinomoto Group and Cookpad/Gallup 2022

36 Building on the earlier work by Hadley Cantril and the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, Gallup measures life satisfaction by asking respondents toplace the status of their lives on a “ladder” scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10, where 0 indicates the worst possible life and 10 the best possible life.
Individuals who rate their current lives a “7” or higher and their future lives an “8” or higher are considered “thriving.” Individuals are “suffering” if they reporttheir current and future lives as a “4” or lower. All other individuals in between are “struggling.”

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Chapter 6: Conclusion

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Cooking and dining with people you know, such as family members or friends,
may seem like familiar, commonplace activities that bear little consequence on an
individual’s overall quality of life. However, the Ajinomoto Group survey results
suggest otherwise: Those who enjoy cooking and frequently eat with others not only
potentially nourish their body through these actions but their soul as well.
Eating with friends and family members on a frequentbasis also appears to relate to beneficial outcomes,
including having more daily positive experiences
and, like cooking enjoyment, improved wellbeing— at least when compared to those who do not eat
with others frequently.

Nearly six in ten people worldwide (58%) said they
enjoyed cooking in the past seven days. This is
an interesting statistic, but also an important one
considering a key finding of this report — that those
who experience enjoyment from cooking are likely tobe thriving in their lives, even after accounting for all
the manifold ways people differ from each other (andhence how they rate their lives), such as age, gender,
education, socioeconomic status and country ofresidence. Put simply, those who enjoy cooking also
tend to enjoy their lives.

By contrast, solitary diners — as defined in thisreport — may not only be at risk of missing out
on these potential upsides but also encountering
outright negative outcomes. This is perhaps best
exemplified by the finding that solo diners inhigh‑income countries are about three times as likely
to be suffering in their life evaluation as high-income
residents who shared at least one meal with someone
they know.

While cooking may be broadly popular, there remains
a substantial proportion of people worldwide who do
not enjoy the practice and an even larger percentage
who do not engage with it at all. Men are especiallylikely to fall into the latter group: Globally, just as
many men said they did not cook at all in the pastseven days as said they enjoyed their recent cooking
experience, at 40% each. This serves as yet anotherexample of the sharp divide between men and womenwith respect to cooking; however, it also highlights apotential way many men might enhance their senseof wellbeing.

As a greater number of people around the world live
alone, often not by choice but due to changing life
circumstances which may themselves be difficult— such as the death of a household member or
divorce — this is a serious challenge to tackle forpolicymakers, community advocates and otherstakeholders interested in improving the overall
wellbeing of their community.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

Appendix Material

A.1: Results of Multivariate Analysis of Thriving inOne’s Life Evaluation Index
Table 1. Understanding the factors behind “thriving”: Results of multivariate analysis

Confidence interval

Odds
ratio

P-value

Statisticallysignificant?

Lower
bound

Upper
bound

1.2

0

Yes

1.1

1.3

15-24 (reference category)

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

25-34

0.67

0

Yes

0.60

0.75

35-49

0.54

0

Yes

0.49

0.60

50-64

0.47

0

Yes

0.41

0.53

65+

0.35

0

Yes

0.31

0.39

Primary (0-8 years) (reference category)

N/A

N/A

Secondary

1.2

0

Yes

1.1

1.3

Tertiary

1.8

0

Yes

1.6

2.0

1.1

0.0

Yes

1.1

1.2

COOK I NG E NJ OY M EN T
Enjoyed cooking (vs. did not enjoy cooking or did not cook)
AG E COH O RT

E DUCAT I ONAL AT TAI NMEN T

GE N D ER
Female (vs. male)I NCOM E QUI N TI L E
Bottom 20% (reference category)

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Second 20%

1.0

0.927

No

0.90

1.1

Middle 20%

1.3

0

Yes

1.2

1.5

Fourth 20%

1.4

0

Yes

1.3

1.6

Richest 20%

1.9

0

Yes

1.7

2.1

1.3

0

Yes

1.2

1.3

N/A

N/A

0.80

0.99

M ARI TAL S TAT U S
Married/in domestic partnership(vs. not married/in domestic partnership)
E M PLOY M E NT S TATU S
Employed full time for employer (reference category)

N/A

N/A

Employed full time for self

0.89

0.03

Yes

Employed part time do not want full time

1.1

0.05

Yes

1.0

1.3

Unemployed

0.72

0

Yes

0.62

0.83

Employed part time want full time

0.98

0.74

No

0.85

1.1

Out of workforce

0.98

0.64

No

0.89

1.1

1.0

0.951

No

0.92

1.1

URBANI C I T Y
Lives in large city or suburb of large city (vs. living in ruralarea or small town)

Note: The model also included global region and country of residence; however, that output is omitted from this table for the sake of brevity.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

A.2: Survey Method
A1.1 Survey Instruments

A1.3 Sampling and Data Collection

This survey was included as a module within the
Gallup World Poll in 2022. Since 2005, the World
Poll has regularly surveyed people in more than160 countries using mixed methods of telephone
and face-to-face interviewing. In a typical year, thepoll results represent more than 95% of the world’s
population aged 15 and older, using randomly
selected, nationally representative samples.

All samples were probability-based — meaning
respondents were selected randomly — and nationally
representative of the aged 15 and older population.
As all eligible landline exchanges and valid mobile
service providers were included, the coverage area isan entire country, including rural areas. The samplingframe represents adults aged 15 and older withaccess to a phone (either landline or mobile). Gallup
used random-digit dialing (RDD) or a nationally
representative list of phone numbers.

See the online appendix for more information on the
Gallup World Poll.

See the online appendix for more information on
how the sample generation/selection process works
in practice.

A1.2 Translation and Quality Control
The questionnaire was translated into the major
conversational languages of each country. The
translation process started with an English, Frenchor Spanish version, depending on the region. One of
two translation methods may have been used. In thefirst, two independent translations were completed.
An independent third party, with some knowledge ofsurvey research methods, adjudicated the differences.
A professional translator translated the final version
back into the source language. In the second, atranslator translated into the target language. An
independent third party with knowledge of survey
methods reviewed and revised the translation
as necessary.

A1.4 Response Rate andData Weighting
As is the case with Gallup World Poll surveys moregenerally, response rates for this survey varied
considerably across countries. In general, response
rates were lower in countries where interviewing was
conducted by telephone than in in-person countries,
though in many countries and territories where
telephone interviewing was used, response rates
were comparable to those of other polling firms. The
Gallup World Poll does not publish individual country
response rates.

Core Gallup World Poll question translations remain
consistent over time. Any new question items weretranslated according to the Gallup World Poll’s quality
procedures. Interviewers were instructed to follow
the interview script and may not deviate from thetranslated language.

Data weighting was also used to minimize bias
in survey estimates and was intended for use ingenerating nationally representative estimates withina country. The weighting procedure was formulated
based on the sample design and performed in
multiple stages.

See the online appendix for more information ontranslation quality control, interviewer training and data
quality control.

See the online appendix for the weighting approach,weight adjustments and sampling error/precisionof estimates.

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

A.3: Survey Questionnaire
Thinking about the last 7 days …?
1

On how many days did you eat lunch with someone you know?
- (0-7 days)2

On how many days did you eat dinner with someone you know?
- (0-7 days)

3

Thinking about the past 7 days, in general did you enjoy cooking? If you didn’t cook in thepast 7 days, please just say so.
- Yes
- No
- Did not cook in the past 7 days
- (DK/Refused))49

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Wellbeing Through Cooking | Global Insights Into Cooking Enjoyment and Eating Together

A.4: Regional Groupings Used in This Report
In analyzing the results from 142 countries and territories, this report uses the following regional groupings:

Regional Groupings
Arab States andNorthern Africa

Southern and Eastern
Asia and the Pacific

EuropeRegionCountries surveyed

Arab States

Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Iraq,
Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Yemen

Northern Africa

Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia

Eastern Asia

Hong Kong (S.A.R. of China), Japan, South Korea, Taiwan
and Mongolia

South-Eastern Asia andthe PacificIndonesia, Singapore, Australia, Philippines, Vietnam,
Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, New Zealandand Malaysia

Southern Asia

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan
and Nepal

Eastern Europe

Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Moldova,
Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Slovakia

Northern, Southern andWestern Europe

United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium,
Spain, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Denmark, Albania, Austria,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Iceland,
Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia,
Malta, Montenegro, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia,
Switzerland and Kosovo

Latin America and the
CaribbeanVenezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Bolivia,
Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama,Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay

Northern America

United States and Canada

Central and Western Asia

Türkiye, Israel, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan andNorthern Cyprus

Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Benin,
Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, Ethiopia, Mali,
Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Zambia, Cameroon,
Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Chad, Comoros, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon,
Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritius, Namibia,
Eswatini, The Gambia and Togo

AmericasCentral andWestern Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

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