In recent years, the UK has been racked by bitter divisions. Often it seems like the young are pitted against the old; renters against homeowners; Remainers against Brexiteers; republicans against royalists. But now, a new report has revealed that we’re all united in being incredibly unhappy.

According to nonprofit research organisation Sapien Labs, the UK is officially the world’s second-most miserable country. The organisation surveyed over 500,000 people in 71 countries for their annual Mental State of the World report, in order to measure how people’s “inner state impacts their ability to function within their life context”.

Using their findings, they compiled a ranking of the happiest and most miserable countries in the world. Uzbekistan emerged as the world’s most miserable country, with the UK coming in second place. Which means that people living through war and humanitarian crises in countries such as Iraq, Yemen, and Ukraine are still happier than us.

The Dominican Republic was revealed as the world’s happiest country, while Sri Lanka and Tanzania placed second and third respectively.

Sapien Labs also found that the dramatic decline in mental wellbeing that was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 continues to persist. “The expectation may have been that once the lockdowns lifted and the threat of COVID-19 subsided that our collective mental health would begin a recovery towards its pre-pandemic levels,” the report reads. “However, the data across 64 countries argues otherwise – that the effects of diminished global mental wellbeing have become a new normal.” Great!

None of this should be too surprising. There have been numerous recent reports on the UK’s youth mental health crisis, with recent NHS data revealing that there were more than 3,500 urgent referrals of under-18s in May 2023, three times as many as there were in May 2019. In addition, a recent report from think tank the Resolution Foundation has found that 34 per cent of young people aged 18-24 in the UK have symptoms of a common mental disorder.

Sapiens Labs noted that many Latin American and African countries rank highly in terms of mental wellbeing while most Anglosphere nations rank poorly, with a correlation between higher GDP and poor mental wellbeing scores. “Greater wealth and economic development do not necessarily lead to greater mental wellbeing,” researchers noted. Relatedly, they noted a correlation between younger age of first smartphone ownership and higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and low mental wellbeing – and in wealthier countries, people are more likely to own smartphones at a young age and consume ultra-processed foods.