• According to research group Sapien Labs’ annual Mental State of the World report, the UK is the second-most unhappy country globally. NDTV.com
• Based on surveys from over 400K people across 71 countries, the report indicates a decline in mental health worldwide since 2020 or the onset of the COVID pandemic. The Economic Times
• On the Mental Health Quotient scale, which ranged from negative−100 (very dissatisfied) to 200 (very satisfied), the UK registered 49 — just above Uzbekistan, the lowest-ranking country. Firstpost
• At least 35% of Britons reported feeling distressed and ranked last in the “percentage of people struggling mentally” category. Time Out United Kingdom
• The report revealed that access to smartphones at younger ages and consumption of ultra-processed food strongly impacted respondents’ mental health. NZ Herald
• In addition, the report found that developing countries outperformed wealthier nations, including the US and the UK, in terms of mental well-being rankings. Daily Mail (LR: 5 CP: 5)

Narrative A:

• Reports like this show that poor mental health across Europe and North America is an indication that being rich or economically developed doesn’t translate to greater life satisfaction. This report is a call to action to take greater care when exposing younger people to certain technologies and to strengthen social and family bonds in order to foster genuine happiness in wealthier countries.
  HUFFINGTON POST (LR: 1 CP: 4)

Narrative B:

• Conflating emotional health with happiness sometimes makes measuring the mental well-being of individuals worldwide tricky. As regards this report, while it shows a lack of recovery from the pandemic’s initial mental health toll, there may have been a reporting bias, as only internet-connected populations could respond to the survey.
  THE TELEGRAPH

Nerd narrative:

• There’s a 50% chance that the World Happiness Report will rank the US at least 18th in 2022-2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
  METACULUS (LR: 3 CP: 3)