Venezuela is the most miserable country in the world for the second consecutive year, according to the study conducted by Cato Institute.
The research called Cato's Misery Index added the country's inflation, lending rates, and unemployment figures and then subtracted the year-on-year per capita GDP growth to determine its "misery" score. A total of 108 nations were ranked based on the data from the Economist Intelligence Unit. The results of the most miserable countries were collected by Johns Hopkins University, Cato Org claims. According to the results, the most miserable nations include Venezuela, Argentina, Syria, Ukraine and Iran.
Venezuela's ranking as the most miserable country in the world skyrocketed year after year. In 2014, it was the most miserable country in the world with an index rating of 106.3, according to Yahoo Real Estate. Based on the rankings of the countries, the least miserable nations are Brunei, Switzerland, China, Taiwan and Japan. In 2014, Sudan and Sao Tome and Principe went down the ranks, while Argentina and Ukraine hit the top five spot. In 2015, Venezuela's index rating jumped to 214.9 with 108.6 increase from the previous year.
The 2014 World Misery Index Scores also showed that United States ranked 95th, making it the 14th least miserable country in the world. Venezuela landed at the top of the ranking due to consumer prices.
Meanwhile, war-torn countries Syria and Ukraine with misery index of 63.9 and 51.8, respectively, hit the 3rd and 4th place due to unemployment, Business Insider reports. Brunei is the least miserable country at the 108th position and with a misery index score of 4.94.
Venezuela has ranked as the top miserable country in the world for two consecutive years now after commodity prices soared high, the government was buried in debt, and the oil that makes up its biggest export crashed.