Last year was the most miserable on record, global study finds

We’re living in turbulent times, with social media seemingly unleashing divisions in our society on both right and left.

It’s perhaps not a surprise that 2017 is the most miserable year on record, according to a large global survey by analytics company Gallup.

Both ‘worry’ and ‘stress’ rose significantly in the survey, which took in 154,000 people and found that humanity had a significant uptick in negative emotions.

It’s the first such rise since the survey began in 2005.

The New York Times reports that more people reported negative emotions such as worry, stress, anger and sadness than in any previous survey.

Worry and stress rose by 2% each in the year from 2016 to 2017, the New York Times reports.

Julie Ray, editor of the Gallup World Poll report said, ‘This is the first time that we’ve seen a really significant uptick in negative emotions.

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‘It’s as high as we’ve ever measured it.’

‘When you’re talking about 154,000 interviews for the entire world, that’s actually a lot. Those two points, that change, is a lot.’

The researchers say that the interviews, carried out in 145 countries, saw a significant uptick of negative emotions in sub-Saharan Africa, where conflict has created ‘growing healthcare crises.’