KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has been named the fifth-happiest country globally, a report finds.
The report, titled The Global Mind Project's 'Mental State of the World' conducted by the nonprofit neuroscience research organisation Sapien Labs were based on surveys from over 400,000 people in 71 countries and saw Malaysia ranked fifth, while the Dominican Republic took the top spot.
The study uses a Mental Health Quotient (MHQ) to assess various aspects of the mental health of participants are categorised based on their scores, ranging from 'thriving' to 'distressed' of which Malaysia scored 85 per cent, an increase of 2.9 per cent from 2022.
Here is the list of the top five happiest and unhappiest countries:
Happiest:
1. Dominican Republic2. Sri Lanka
3. Tanzania4. Panama
5. Malaysia
Unhappiest:1. Uzbekistan
2. UK
3. South Africa4. Brazil
5. Tajikistan
The report also found that mental well-being remained at its post-pandemic low with yet again no sign of movement towards pre-pandemic levels.
"In 2023, at both a global level and at the level of individual countries, MHQ scores remained largely unchanged relative to 2021 and 2022, after a sharp drop during the pandemic years.
"This raises important questions about the lasting impact of the pandemic, and how shifts in the way we live and work and the amplification of existing habits like remote working, online communication, consumption of ultra-processed food, use of single-use plastics have cumulatively pushed us into a space of poorer mental wellbeing."
Sapien Labs also concluded that younger generations, particularly those under age 35, saw the steepest declines in mental well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic while those over 65 stayed steady.
"With these declines persisting across all age groups, the pandemic amplified a pre-existing trend of poorer mental wellbeing for younger generations that is now visible across the globe.
"As in previous years, several African and Latin American countries topped the country rankings, while wealthier countries of the Core Anglosphere such as the United Kingdom and Australia are towards the bottom.
"This pattern suggests that greater wealth and economic development do not necessarily lead to greater mental well-being."
As such, Sapien Labs said, the insights of the report paint a worrying picture of the post-pandemic prospects and we urgently need to better understand the drivers of the collective mental well-being so that goals and ambitions can be aligned.