Misery Index
Categories: Metrics
Misery loves company, right? That’s why the “misery index,” starring Kathy Bates, which measure’s a country’s economic health and happiness, includes not one, not two, but several different indicators, all mushed into one informal index. Politicians and pundits love to bring up the misery index to point out how much economically happier—or unhappier—we are as a result of certain policies, elected leaders, and/or domestic and international goings-on.
When the first misery index was born back in the 1970s, it was fairly simple: it added a country’s unemployment rate to its inflation rate, and voila—misery index. The higher the number, the worse off we were. But as time went on, it was decided that inflation and unemployment alone do not an unhappy economy make; there are also other things to consider, like interest rates, lending rates, and GDP. Depending on who’s putting the index together, it can include all those things and more.
So which countries are the most miserable? Well, according to the 2016 misery index, Venezuela is far and away the misery index winner. Argentina and Brazil are a very distant second and third, and the U.S. came in at lucky #39 out of 59. Who’s the most economically un-miserable? In 2016, that honor went to Japan, though China and Thailand weren’t far behind.
