


Misery finds the most company across these down-and-out nations.
Zimbabwe was named the most miserable country on Steve Hanke’s Annual Misery Index (HAMI) this month out of 157 analyzed.
The 2022 ranking determined the HAMI score for each country using an equation that considered unemployment, inflation, bank-lending rates and the percentage change in GDP.
The year’s HAMI allotted the first place title to Zimbabwe with inflation — or, “economic mismanagement,” according to Hanke — as the contributing factor to residents’ unhappiness.
Hanke blamed the country’s reigning political party ZANU-PF and its policies for inflicting “massive misery.”
The African nation was trailed by Venezuela, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Argentina, Yemen, Ukraine, Cuba and Turkey, which led the pack as the most miserable countries in the world.
“We should expect a country embroiled in civil war for over twelve years now to be lacking in happiness,” Hanke said of Syria, which ranked third.
The U.S. ranked 134th on the list, with unemployment as the leading culprit of unhappiness.
Hanke’s calculation is an altered rendition of the misery index created by Arthur Okun, an economist who previously served as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Johnson Administration.
“The human condition lies on a vast spectrum between ‘miserable’ and ‘happy,'” wrote Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University.
He explained that the only way to “mitigate” countries’ misery via “high inflation, steep borrowing costs and unemployment” is to grow the economy.
“Comparing countries’ metrics can tell us a lot about where in the world people are sad or happy,” he added.
Switzerland, on the other hand, is not in the business of misery. The European country had the lowest HAMI score, meaning its citizens are the happiest.
“One reason for that is the Swiss debt brake,” Hanke wrote, crediting the low debt-to-GDP ratio for the nation’s joyous success.
The second-happiest country was Kuwait, followed by Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Niger, Thailand, Togo and Malta.
While Finland ranked 109th, it has historically reigned as the “world’s happiest country.”
The Northern European scored the first place slot in the annual World Happiness Report for the sixth year in a row.
The Finnish people shared “strong feelings of communal support and mutual trust” that helped citizens weather the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the study.
“Additionally, Finlanders felt strongly that they were free to make their own choices, and showed minimal suspicion of government corruption. Both of these factors are strong contributors to overall happiness,” the authors wrote.