In 2022, after U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban regained power, Afghans reported an average life satisfaction of 1.28 on a scale from 0 to 10—or from the worst possible life to the best possible life—a global, all-time low, according to a new study published today in Science Advances. That is lower than life satisfaction scores recorded in more than 170 countries since 1946, when global ratings were first tallied. In 2022, the global mean life satisfaction rating recorded in the Gallup World Poll was 5.48. 

“Globally, people expect their future to be better than their present. People are optimistic about their future,” says Levi Stutzman, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto and lead author of the paper “Epilogue to the war: Afghanistan reports the lowest well-being in recorded history.” “Afghanistan is quite different as Afghans have reported low life satisfaction and even lower hope, which likely reflects profound distress and despair within the country."