Certain nations indeed provide fantastic quality of life. They have reliable governments, affordable products and services, abundant employment opportunities, supportive social programmes, and high-quality health care, schools, and police forces.
They could also feature plenty of parks and other green areas, and thriving arts and cultural scenes. Developed nations often have these characteristics, making them desirable places to live.
Contrarily, think of a nation where people had to deal with political unrest (maybe even bloodshed), rampant inflation, high unemployment, bad health care, subpar education, and uncertain security, all while receiving little to no assistance from social programmes or the arts.
This problematic area would be ranked among the [“least developed countries”]((/country-rankings/least-developed-countries), making life there considerably more difficult. To what extent may these distinctions be made succinctly, and how?
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Seeking the sub-standard: How to identify the worst countries in which to live
Many indicators are calculated each year to provide a snapshot of a country’s standard of living.
Some of these metrics zero in on one particular facet of a nation; for example, the Hanke Misery Index looks only at the state of the economy on the assumption that citizens’ satisfaction with their standard of living is highly correlated with the strength of their financial situation.
Some, like the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), take a more holistic approach by aggregating data from several different areas. Depending on the methodology used, rankings of the worst nations in which to live might vary greatly.
Top 10 Worst Places in the World to Live – United Nations Human Development Index 2020
Note: scores range between 0.0 and 1.0. The higher the better.
- Niger – .394
- Central African Republic – .397
- Chad – .398
- Burundi – .433 (tie)
- South Sudan – .433 (tie)
- Mali – .434
- Burkina Faso – .452 (tie)
- Sierra Leone – .452 (tie)
- Mozambique – .456
- Eritrea – .459
The majority of them are nations in Central Africa. Civil conflict, ethnic unrest, or terrorist insurgencies have erupted in several of these nations, including Niger, Chad, South Sudan, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
Millions of people are forced to live on less than $2 a day since even in peaceful nations, education lasts for just a few years on average and excellent employment are hard to come by.
In Niger, for instance, the typical individual spends just 2.1 years in school while the country’s per capita GNI is only $1201 PPP.
Norway ranks first in the human development index (HDI) with a GDP per capita of $66,494 and average schooling of 12.9 years. Visit our HDI by country page to get the latest rankings for all countries in the world.
Top 10 Worst Countries to Live in the World – Hanke Misery Index 2020
Note: The lower the score, the better.
- Venezuela – 3827.6
- Zimbabwe – 547.0
- Sudan – 193.9
- Lebanon – 177.1
- Suriname – 145.3
- Libya – 105.7
- Argentina – 95.0
- Iran – 92.1
- Angola – 60.6
- Madagascar – 60.4
Former Yale University economist Arthur Okun created the misery index to measure public discontent with the country’s economic situation.
In more recent years, Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke has enlarged the idea to include 156 nations and produced an annual list of the greatest and worst countries to live in from an economic standpoint.
The premise behind the misery index is easy to understand. Unemployment, inflation, and the interest rate at which banks lend money are all input into the calculation, with the percentage change in real GDP per capita subtracted out.
Developed nations often have a happiness index between 0 and 20, with 0 being the best and 20 being the best that can be expected.
However, in rare circumstances, a nation might do so well that its misery index is negative; for instance, in 2020, oil deposits were found in Guyana, leading to a 25% jump in GDP per capita or a -3.3 misery index.
On the other side, Venezuela, which will be ranked as the worst place to live in the world in 2020, exemplifies the worst-case scenario.
Given the country’s 3,713% inflation & 50.3% unemployment rate, which far outweigh a 30.9% gain in real GDP per capita for an ultimate misery index score of 3827.6, 2020 marks the sixth year in a row that Venezuela has acquired this awful classification.
See the table below for a complete breakdown of the misery index and the nations that cut.
Also See: World Values Survey 2022
The top 10 most miserable countries are as follows:
- Venezuela – 3827.6
- Zimbabwe – 547
- Sudan – 193.9
- Lebanon – 177.1
- Suriname – 145.3
- Libya – 105.7
- Argentina – 95
- Iran – 92.1
- Angola – 60.6
- Madagascar – 60.4