South Asia Leads World in Suffering
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Suffering, on average, has increased worldwide in the past several years, and nowhere more than in South Asia. One in seven adults worldwide rated their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering in 2012. South Asia led the world in suffering at 24%, followed by 21% in the Balkans and the Middle East and North Africa.
Gallup classifies respondents as "thriving," "struggling," or "suffering" according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10, based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. Gallup considers people to be suffering if they rate their current lives a 4 or lower and their lives in five years a 4 or lower. The respondents do not label themselves as suffering.
Comparing average suffering for 2006-2008 with the average for 2010-2012, suffering increased by three percentage points worldwide. South Asia clearly registers the biggest increase in suffering during this period and because of its large population, it is mostly responsible for the worldwide uptick. Suffering in the region has increased enormously since the beginning of the global financial and economic crisis, averaging 12% between 2006 and 2008, and 22% between 2010 and 2012.
Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa defy the global trend. Between 2010 and 2012, residents of both regions were on average less likely to be suffering than they were before the outbreak of the global economic crisis. Resource-oriented, emerging-market economies in both regions largely managed to avoid the recession that plagued more mature economies in Northern America and Europe.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/166028/south-asia-leads-world-suffering.aspx
Suffering in North America is now 4%, up from 2%.
