Is Britain Really the Most Miserable Country in the World?

In a recent viral tweet, the commentator James Melville posted some figures showing that Britain is the most miserable country in the world. Specifically, Britain was ranked last out of 64 countries on average ‘Mental Health Quotient’ score in the year 2022. (And the 2023 ranking was very similar.)

As to what accounts for this remarkable situation, Melville suggested that it is “the culmination of decades of decline in so many areas in the UK”. Several commenters offered similar explanations. One noted that feeling miserable is a “rational response to watching your heritage dissolve in real time while being told you’re racist for noticing”. Another argued that “it’s not surprising” when the country is “taxed to the hilt” and “abused by illegal immigrants”.

These theories are all well and good. But they ignore something crucial: the ranking makes no sense at all—which calls into question the validity of the data.  

First place in 2022 was Tanzania, with an average MHQ score of 94 (as compared to 46 in Britain). So what is Tanzania getting right that countries like Britain are getting wrong? Well, it’s one of the poorest countries in the world, with a GDP per capita of only $4,000 (as compared to $64,000 in the UK). And it has a life expectancy of only 67, thanks partly to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic there. To boost Britons’ mental health, should the Government try to emulate Tanzania?

There are more oddities. Ranked fifth is Venezuela, whose living standards are lower now than they were in the late 1970s—thanks to decades of economic mismanagement. Ranked tenth is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where there is an ongoing armed conflict that has claimed thousands of lives. Perhaps the Government should try to emulate Venezuela or the DRC.

Looking at the bottom of the list, Ireland is ranked 60th and Australia is ranked 61st—lower than countries such as Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen. Are Australians really more miserable than Yemenis? I don’t believe it.

Rather than Britons being the most miserable people in the world, it seems far more likely that scores on the Mental Health Quotient do not have the same meaning in different cultures or different languages.

Indeed, the scale itself is needlessly complicated. For example, the first item asks about the respondent’s ‘adaptability to change’, which it defines as ‘your ability to be flexible when faced with societal changes, or changes in your daily routine or environment, and to adopt new ways of living or working accordingly’. After reading the definition, the respondent is required to place himself on a 9-point scale from ‘is a real challenge and impacts my ability to learn’ to ‘is a real asset to my life and performance’.

A simpler measure of well-being is the Cantril Ladder, which requires the respondent to place himself on a 10-point scale, where 10 is ‘the best possible life for you’ and 0 is ‘the worst possible life for you’. When countries are compared on this measure, the numbers make much more sense. Britain is ranked 23 out of 147 countries. And the top spots are taken by Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. Meanwhile, Tanzania is ranked 136.

The lesson here is that just because some figures are written up in a glossy report doesn’t mean they’re right. And in this case, they’re almost certainly wrong.