IMAGINE YOU ARE IN A ROOM with the leaders of the G20: the president of the United States, the prime ministers of Canada and India, the chancellor of Germany, the president of China, the king of Saudi Arabia and the leaders of the other 14 largest economies in the world. You ask them: What indicators do you follow most closely?
All leaders use indicators to measure progress. If you asked CEOs this question, they would probably say ‘revenue growth’ or ‘share price.’ With world leaders, it’s harder to know. Would they say GDP? Unemployment? The poverty rate? Maybe the Saudi king would say oil prices? I am not sure what their answer would be, but I do know what they would not say: none of them would mention happiness.
As a result, none of them know just how much unhappiness there is in the world today. And that is concerning, because unhappiness is at a record high. According to Gallup, people feel more anger, sadness, pain, worry and stress than ever before. I know what you’re thinking: I didn’t need data to know that; the COVID-19 pandemic made everyone miserable. But global misery was rising well before the pandemic. In fact, unhappiness has been steadily climbing for a decade — and its rise has remained in the blind spot of almost every world leader.
Sure, leaders understand income inequality — the growing divide between the financial haves and have-nots. What they are not familiar with is the growing divide between the haves and have-nots of a great life, which is called well-being inequality.
At the beginning of every Gallup well-being survey, we ask people to tell us how good of a life they have. Here is the question verbatim:
Imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top
