How leaders can improve global happiness

Gallup CEO Jon Clifton tells Axios that to flatten the curve on growing global unhappiness, private and public leaders need to focus on three things: improving well-being at work, addressing global loneliness and fixing global hunger.

Driving the news: Clifton's conclusions are based on the annual "Gallup Global Emotions" report, out today.

Why it matters: The world's stress is at record levels. "Emotionally, the second year of the pandemic was an even tougher year for the world than the first one," Gallup found.

• "As 2021 served up a steady diet of uncertainty, the world became a slightly sadder, more worried and more stressed-out place."

The bleak graphic above is based on people's self-reported anger, sadness, stress, worry and physical pain.

• The findings are based on an astonishing 127,000 interviews with adults in 122 countries and areas in 2021 and early 2022.

Between the lines: In Gallup's 2006 report, the U.S. ranked 20th out of 122 countries for negative emotions. In 2021, the U.S. was 46th.

• But that's not because we're getting happier, Clifton tells Axios: It's because the rest of the world is getting unhappier.