Who are the unhappiest people in the world? In Afghanistan and Lebanon, more people live in misery than anywhere else on the planet
By Julie Ray
8 September 2022
(Gallup) – Unhappiness continued to rise worldwide in 2021, as the world overall became a sadder, more worried and more stressed-out place. But in two countries — Afghanistan and Lebanon — more people were living in misery than anywhere else on the planet.
Last year, Afghanistan and Lebanon posted the two highest scores in the world — 59 and 58 — on Gallup’s Negative Experience Index, which is a composite measure of people’s daily experiences of sadness, stress, worry, anger and physical pain. Higher scores on the index mean more of a population is experiencing these emotions.
The high scores for Afghanistan and Lebanon in 2021 notably displaced Iraq — which still ranked among the topmost miserable countries — from the No. 1 spot on the Negative Experience Index that it had occupied for the two previous years. Iraq posted scores similar to Afghanistan’s and Lebanon’s current scores throughout its war against the Islamic State group.
Most of the countries with the highest scores on the Negative Experience Index were contending with some type of economic or political instability in 2021 that is mirrored in their emotional health.
When Gallup surveyed Afghanistan as the Taliban retook control last year and as the U.S. withdrew its troops, Afghans’ emotional state reflected the chaos and uncertainty. Worry, stress, and sadness soared to record-high levels in Afghanistan and were the highest in the world in 2021: 80% of Afghans were worried, 74% were stressed, and 61% were sad. Notably, no other population in the world has ever reported feeling this worried in the history of Gallup’s trend.
In Lebanon, political instability and government ineffectiveness have become the norm, but the country’s latest economic meltdown has been harder on people than any of its struggles since the civil war. The quality of life has deteriorated so much that 63% of Lebanese adults said they would like to leave the country permanently if they could — this desire is even stronger among those experiencing negative emotions.
As life in Lebanon became harder, negative emotions surged to record highs. Nearly three in four people (74%) said in 2021 that they experienced stress “a lot of the day” during the previous day. About half of people in Lebanon also said they experienced a lot of sadness (56%) and anger (49%). Lebanon led the world in anger in 2021. […]
Implications
In the second year of the pandemic, people were living with even more uncertainty than the previous year — with more people dying from COVID-19 despite the rollout of vaccines. Yet, the pandemic is not entirely to blame for the increase in negative emotions. Gallup’s data show that the world has been on a negative trajectory for a decade.
Gallup’s latest book, Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It, which comes out next week, investigates why the world is on its current course and what leaders can do about it.
