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MBABANE – Eswatini was listed among the top 10 unhappiest nations in Africa.

The Global Health Report shows that most countries with lower gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, political tensions and high levels of unemployment had the saddest people.

The data from this report was collected through a survey from thousands of respondents for each country, who were asked to rate their subjective well-being (happiness score) using a model known as the Cantril life ladder question.

Happiness

The report also does a regression analysis to look at how happiness scores could be explained, by looking at tangible and intangible factors that could factor in social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, GDP per capita, perceptions of corruption and other indicators.

In the past years, the report took a special consideration to track how COVID-19 and political instability had impacted aspects of people’s daily lives and how it affected global happiness levels. Globally, the country slightly moved from position 130 to 125. The happiness index is scored from one to 10, with 10 being the happiest nation.

In Africa, the report shows that the continent scored 4.5, making it the unhappiest region worldwide. Zimbabwe remains the unhappiest country in the region with a score of 3.0, as it continues to struggle with high levels of poverty. In 2021, approximately 6.1 million people were living below the international poverty line.

Eswatini is sitting in 10th position of unhappy nations. Mauritius remains the happiest country in the region, likely because of its relatively high levels of income. It is worth noting that Mauritius became a High-Income country in July 2020, but slipped back to its Upper-Middle-Income because of the global pandemic.

Economic

The report highlighted that in the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries worldwide were still reeling from the pandemic’s devastating health, social and economic impact. On the brighter side of things, the report noted an increase in mental and psychological support programmes across countries. It further states that governments scaled up mental health programmes and drafted plans to improve investments.