Nigerians’ mental health second-best in Africa – Report

Nigeria has been ranked the second country in Africa with the best mental well-being, edging Zimbabwe, while Tanzania secured the highest point.

This was revealed in the Global Mind Project’s fourth annual ‘Mental State of the World’ report, conducted by Sapien Labs, which equally suggests a global decrease in mental well-being since the onset of the pandemic.

The report comes as Nigeria battles economic hardship flagged by the high cost of living, amongst others, as a result of the removal of subsidy on petrol and the unification of the exchange rate windows by President Bola Tinubu in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.

The hardship led to a series of protests across the country from Niger, Kogi, Osun, and Lagos, to Kano Statee, among others as civilians took over major roads in protest against the high costs of food items.

The world is managing a lot of issues, from high living expenses for pandemics, drought and economic wrecks, and finding bliss has turned into a significant objective for nations universally and in the Africatate of the World report.

The report aggregates reactions from the north of 500,000 people assembled all through the year across 71 nations, covering 9 geographic areas including Africa.

However, Sapien Labs maintained that “this Global Mind project aligns with the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of mental wellbeing which is broadly the ability of an individual to handle the normal stresses and adversities of life and contribute productively to society. The project therefore does not inform on traditional views of happiness or life satisfaction but rather provides a more comprehensive and economically relevant
perspective across the breadth of emotional, social and cognitive capabilities.”

The report utilizes six-layered scores, including temperament and standpoint, social self, drive and inspiration, versatility and strength, cognizance, and brain-body connection. These scores are likewise figured utilizing subsets of the 47 surveyed things to give a more granular view.

The document said that mental well-being has remained largely static across the world since 2021. At the top of the rankings are many Latin American and African countries, while much of the core Anglosphere ranks in the bottom quartile.

This runs counter to the common perception that wealth boosts well-being.

“In our annual report for 2021 we showed that the average mental wellbeing scores of the Internet-enabled populations of countries were strongly and significantly negatively correlated with economic metrics such as per capita GDP and even the Human Development Index,” the report read.

The report revealed that the UK recorded a relatively low score of 49 on the Mental Health Quotient, whereas over 10 African countries achieved scores surpassing 60 on the MHQ.

Tanzania has the highest score at 88, with Nigeria and Zimbabwe closely following at 83 and 74 on the MHQ, respectively.

Below are the 10 countries in Africa with best ranked mental well-being, alongside their MHQ, according to the ‘Mental State of the World’ report:

1 Tanzania 88

2 Nigeria 83

3 Zimbabwe 74

4 Kenya 72

5 Democratic Republic of the Congo 71

6 Mozambique 70

7 Cote D’Ivoire 69

8 Cameroon 67

9 Tunisia 67

10 Angola 64