The world’s 10 most miserable countries revealed including UK – full list

You might have known that , but perhaps you did not expect them to be worse than war-torn or . Well sadly they are if a 2024 report is to be believed. Carried out by US non-profit Sapien Labs, it has listed the ten most unhappy places, with the UK beating a whole host of poverty-stricken, conflict-ravaged countries to come second ahead of only Uzbekistan.

and are, respectively, the tenth and ninth most unhappy places in the world. But seemingly, for all of the problems faced for their citizens, people there are still happier than in the UK.

The report used criteria such as mood and outlook, social self, adaptability and resilience, drive and motivation, cognition and mind-body connection to ascertain the list, with the UK performing poorly in every category.

Using data from 500,000 people in 71 countries, researchers aimed to “provide an evolving global map of mental wellbeing and enable deep insights into its drivers that can be used for more effective management of population mental wellbeing through evidence-based social policy and interventions.”

The UK’s poor ranking might surprise some, given the tribulations of countries higher up the table, but in 2023, the Office for National Statistics recorded an overall decline in personal wellbeing across the UK.

Similarly, mental health charity Mind has warned on numerous occasions of an unfolding mental health crisis, particularly among men and young people.

So, what of the other nations in the top 10. came in at eighth, ahead of in seventh.

It seems that for all of its beaches and sunny weather, the people of have struggles that may not seem obvious on the surface, with the nation listed as the sixth unhappiest country in the world.

The land down under scored particularly poorly for drive and motivation, as did in fifth and fellow beach abundant nation who was ranked fourth.

was found to be the third unhappiest nation on earth, with factors such as high levels of crime and poverty a potential reason as to why.

Whilst researchers did not comment on specific countries and reason behind their unhappiness, the report did find characteristics amongst many of the nations languishing towards the bottom.

Researchers said: “The impacts of owning a smartphone at a young age were especially pronounced for the dimension of Social Self and drove symptoms such as Suicidal thoughts, Feeling detached from reality and Feelings of aggression towards others.

“In countries that are generally at the top of the list in this report, and less developed countries in general, the average age that young people first own a smartphone is typically older.”

They added that a correlation with countries with a high consumption of ultra-processed food was found with countries where such food was popular seeing “substantially poorer mental wellbeing at all ages.”

They added: “A third factor is diminished family bonds. For example, across a sample of 407,959 respondents, we found that 10% of 18-24 year olds did not get along with any of their family and preferred not to see them compared to only 3% of the oldest generation.”

The world’s unhappiest countries

1. Uzbekistan
2. United Kingdom
3. South Africa
4. Brazil
5. Tajikistan
6. Australia
7. Egypt
8. Ireland
9. Iraq
10. Yemen