The world’s most — and least — miserable economies in 2025, ranked

Each year, I produce Hanke’s Annual Misery Index (HAMI). They call me the “money doctor” for my globe-spanning career of economic advisory missions, and by using readily available economic data, I can measure the temperature of the patient, so to speak, to determine just how “miserable” or “healthy” an economy is.

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The idea of a misery index was fathered by Arthur Okun, a distinguished economist and Yale professor who served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1968 to 1969 during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Johnson wanted an easy way to take the economy’s temperature. Okun’s index, which he used for the United States, is equal to the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates.

Okun’s misery index was modified by Harvard professor Robert Barro in 1999, by including the 30-year government-bond yield and the difference between the long-term-trend rate of real GDP growth and the actual rate of real GDP growth.

In 2009, I amended Barro’s version of the misery index by replacing the 30-year government-bond yield with lending rates, and by replacing the difference between the long-term-trend rate of real GDP growth and the actual rate of real GDP growth with the growth rate of real GDP per capita.

Then, in 2022, I made a further amendment to HAMI. Following Andrew Oswald’s (University of Warwick) suggestion, I decided to double the weight put on the unemployment-rate component in HAMI. The intuition is that an additional percentage point of unemployment hits people a lot harder than an additional percentage point of inflation. So, HAMI is the sum of the year-end unemployment (multiplied by two), inflation, and bank-lending rates, minus the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita.

Some might protest that the inflation rate and bank lending rate are correlated, and therefore HAMI double-counts the effects of inflation. Similar to the doubling of the unemployment weight, this is by design. The logic for this is rooted in loss aversion: People perceive losses as more significant than gains. Therefore, two items that contain inflation are included while the growth rate in real GDP per capita, a gain, is not double weighted.

Unlike Okun and Barro, who focused on the United States, HAMI covers many foreign countries; 178 are included in the 2025 edition — a new record.

Rank (Worst to Best)CountryMisery IndexMajor Contributing Factor1Venezuela556.4916Inflation2Sudan225.3674Inflation3Turkey100.9610Lending rate4Iran95.8785Inflation5Argentina88.3548Inflation6Eswatini80.0417Unemployment7South Africa79.0287Unemployment8Malawi75.1526Inflation9Madagascar73.9617Lending rate10Lebanon72.4354Unemployment11Haiti72.3550Inflation12Angola72.3312Lending rate13Yemen70.9509Lending rate14Myanmar65.8942Inflation15Zimbabwe64.7210Lending rate16Djibouti60.6007Unemployment17Botswana60.0948Unemployment18Bosnia and Hercegovina59.6779Unemployment19Brazil59.6366Lending rate20Gabon58.5675Unemployment21Ukraine55.5641Lending rate22Palestinian Territories52.4679Inflation23Namibia50.8055Unemployment24Congo (brazzaville)49.7878Unemployment25Lesotho48.5402Unemployment26Egypt46.4752Unemployment27São Tomé and Príncipe45.7870Lending rate28Bolivia44.0357Inflation29Tunisia43.8642Unemployment30Suriname43.5723Lending rate31Iraq41.9677Unemployment32Jordan41.2703Unemployment33Syria41.1575Unemployment34Georgia40.0072Lending rate35St. Vincent and the Grenadines39.1071Unemployment36Rwanda38.9303Lending rate37Nigeria37.8900Inflation38Mauritania37.8311Lending rate39Kazakhstan37.8157Lending rate40Cuba37.4372Inflation41Mozambique37.3164Lending rate42Congo (Democratic Republic)36.8888Lending rate43Uzbekistan36.5478Lending rate44Libya36.0237Unemployment45Pakistan35.7077Lending rate46Colombia35.5889Lending rate47Tajikistan35.5166Lending rate48The Gambia34.1847Inflation49Honduras34.0335Lending rate50Ghana32.9663Lending rate51Equatorial Guinea32.8624Unemployment52Armenia32.8246Lending rate53Zambia31.7050Inflation54Burundi31.0339Inflation55Mongolia30.6199Lending rate56Nepal30.3327Unemployment57Guinea30.1743Lending rate58Azerbaijan30.0473Lending rate59Russia29.2889Lending rate60Romania29.2253Lending rate61Central African Republic29.0967Lending rate62Sierra Leone29.0507Lending rate63Dominican Republic28.4691Lending rate64Ethiopia28.4599Inflation65Kenya28.1463Lending rate66Cabo Verde27.3768Unemployment67North Macedonia27.3600Unemployment68Montenegro27.0721Unemployment69Kyrgyz Republic26.8306Lending rate70Algeria26.7545Unemployment71Uruguay26.4952Lending rate72St. Lucia26.3988Unemployment73Estonia25.6007Lending rate74Paraguay25.4389Lending rate75Turkmenistan25.1167Lending rate76Spain25.0209Unemployment77New Zealand24.2175Lending rate78Chile24.0089Unemployment79Serbia23.9988Unemployment80Bangladesh23.5174Inflation81Peru23.2992Lending rate82Iceland23.1386Lending rate83Uganda23.1103Lending rate84Jamaica23.0654Lending rate85Sweden23.0602Unemployment86India22.8678Lending rate87Finland22.8516Unemployment88Gr