Zimbabwe has been ranked the third happiest country in Africa according to the Mental State of the World in 2023. And before you laugh it off, the study says this has nothing to do with the common perception that wealth enhances wellbeing.
It has more to do with at what age a person acquires a smartphone, consumption of ultra-processed foods and how one gets along with one’s family. Zimbabwe came third after Tanzania and Nigeria
South Africa and Botswana, where most Zimbabweans flock to, are not even in the top 10.
Here are 3 key findings of particular significance and concern.
The first relates to the age at which a child gets their first smartphone. Across a sample of 27 969 respondents, we found that for today’s 18-24 year olds, who are the first generation to be born into a world of smartphones and social media, the younger they were when they got their first smartphone the worse their mental health outcomes in adulthood.
For example, 74% of female respondents aged 18-24 who got their first smartphone at age 6 had MHQ scores that fell within a Distressed or Struggling range. This decreased to 61% for those who acquired their first smartphone at age 10, and 52% for those who acquired their first smartphone at age 15.
The impacts of owning a smartphone at a young age were especially pronounced for the dimension of Social Self and drove symptoms such as Suicidal thoughts, Feeling detached from reality and Feelings of aggression towards others.
In countries that are generally at the top of the list in this report, and less developed countries in general, the average age that young people first own a smartphone is typically older (about 14/15 in Latin America and 16 in Sub Saharan Africa) while it’s lowest in the Core Anglosphere (age 11).
The age at which children first own a smartphone, and the way this consequently opens up their world to the internet and social media, therefore seems to be a key factor in declining mental wellbeing trends.
A second finding relates to the consumption of ultra-processed food. In this Rapid Report published earlier this year, based on a sample of 292 786 respondents, we showed that more frequent consumption of ultra-processed food results in substantially poorer mental wellbeing at all ages, with a broad impact on symptoms of depression and emotional and cognitive control.
For example, we found that over half of those who eat ultra-processed food daily are Distressed or Struggling with their mental wellbeing, compared to just 18% of those who rarely or never consume ultra- processed food, an almost 3-fold increase.
Similar to with the age of smartphone ownership, less developed countries tend to have lower ultra-processed food consumption while 60-70% of food consumption in Core Anglosphere countries like the United States and United Kingdom are ultra-processed.
A third factor discussed in our report last year are diminished family bonds. For example, across a sample of 407 959 respondents, we found that 10% of 18-24 year olds did not get along with any of their family and preferred not to see them compared to only 3% of the oldest generation.
At the same time, the risk of mental health challenges in adulthood are four times lower if you have close family relationships. Again, it was wealthier countries, such as those in the Core Anglosphere, that reported the lowest closeness to many adult family members (23%) and the least stable and loving childhood homes (39%).
Altogether this suggests that greater wealth and economic development does not necessarily lead to greater mental wellbeing, but instead can lead to consumption patterns and a fraying of social bonds that are detrimental to our ability to thrive. This cautions strongly against purely focusing on economic metrics as measures of human progress and wellbeing. Rather attention must be paid to how wealth is created and used to drive a path of holistic prosperity that is aligned with human wellbeing.
