October 31, 2014 10:41AM 

# The World Misery Index: 109 Countries 

By [Steve H. Hanke](https://www.cato.org/people/steve-h-hanke) 

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Every country aims to lower inflation, unemployment, and lending rates, while increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Through a simple sum of the former three rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth, I constructed a misery index that comprehensively ranks 109 countries based on “misery.” Below are the index scores for 2013. Countries not included in the table did not report satisfactory data for 2013.

![Media Name: world_misery_index_2013_109_countries.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/world_misery_index_2013_109_countries.png?itok=BpJqAwAw) 

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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