Manila named world’s ‘most loving capital city’

MANILA, Philippines — Are you a Manila resident? Chances are, you just sent all your loving to a crush, but in a tweet.

Love is in the air in the city of Manila, according to a global word analysis from Crossword Solver, which called the Philippine capital the “most loving city in the world.”

In its website, the word search tool analyzed geotagged tweets from all over the world that contained variations of the phrase “I love you” and those that contained the heart emoji.

“We could calculate the proportion of loving tweets per 100,000 overall to determine which location was more loving than others,” the website said.

Manila turned out to be the “most loving capital city in the world” with 1,246 “loving tweets” per 100,000 tweets.

Manila even trumped the city associated with romance – Paris, France – which did not land in Crossword Solver’s top 20 ranking.

It seems Manila residents had the most “hugot” lines on Twitter by sharing their emotions or terms of endearment online.

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

But love need not be romantic. It may be platonic in the Filipino culture, and the most notable form of love for Filipinos is that for family.

“Love is at the core of most families, and immediate and extended families are considered important in Filipino culture,” according to Crossword Solver.

The website cited a 2006-2007 Gallup study that found that 93 percent of people in the Philippines reported feeling love on a typical day, the highest proportion of any country in the world.

In the Gallup poll, which quantified feelings of love from residents in 136 countries, Philippines was “the world leader in love” with 93 percent of the population reported feeling love.

Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna said the findings showed that city residents are “very vocal on how they feel.”

The other capital cities in the top 20 list are Guatemala City, Guatemala; Luanda, Angola; Jakarta, Indonesia; Mexico City, Mexico; Bogotá, Colombia; Algiers, Algeria; Asunción, Paraguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Caracas, Venezuela; Kabul, Afghanistan; Tehran, Iran; Santiago, Chile; Quito, Ecuador; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Hong Kong, and Minsk, Belarus.

Only major capital cities with more than 10,000 tweets and with a minimum population of 1.5 million were included in the analysis.

The most loving country is Guatemala, with 2,217 “loving tweets” per 100,000, and the most loving city in the world is Cochabamba, Bolivia with 2,878 loving tweets.