During the global financial crisis, suffering increased globally. According to a survey recently published by Gallup, 14% of the world’s population was suffering in 2012, compared to 11% on average before the recession began. In the United States, only 4% of the people surveyed reported being unhappy with their lives last year, up only slightly from 3% last year.

In some parts of the world, conditions are much more dire. In Bulgaria, the country with the worst numbers, 39% of the population was suffering in 2012, according to recent poll published by Gallup earlier this week. In eight countries, 30% or more of the population rated their life satisfaction as a four or worse on a scale of 1-10. These countries are plagued by disease, extreme poverty, political corruption and armed conflict.

Click here to see the Eight Countries Where People Suffer the Most

Syria, which doesn’t quite make the list with 29% of the population suffering in 2012, is embroiled in a civil war. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his administration has been accused of using chemical weapons on civilians. Since the conflict began in 2011, more than 125,000 people, more than 40,000 of which were civilians.

In many of the countries with highest levels of suffering, however, war does not appear to be a key factor. According to Gallup Analyst Jan Sonnenschein, suffering can be traced to extreme dissatisfaction with the local governments. “In Bulgaria, Hungary, and Armenia, there isn’t a civil war, like in Syria.” Instead, residents are “extremely disappointed with their leaders because they haven’t seen any progress whatsoever.”

This disappointment in leaders is often a product of high levels of corruption, explained Sonnenschein. In Bulgaria, more than 3 in 4 residents said the country’s political parties were corrupt, one of the highest rates in the world, according to Transparency International. Students in the country recently led another wave of protests as allegations of corruption continue to be raised against the government.

While unemployment rates are not available for all of these countries, many had among the highest levels of unemployment in the world. Macedonia, for example, had an unemployment rate of more than 30% in 2012, the highest of any nation reporting to the International Monetary Fund. Nearly all of the countries with high levels of suffering had unemployment rates in excess of 10%.

Extreme poverty is also a factor in some of these unhappy countries, Sonnenschein explained. Haiti, for example, is still reeling from a devastating earthquake in 2010. “Haiti is still the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean. The international community is pulling out slowly, and I believe they haven’t met many of their goals to reconstruct the island and the economy.”

Haiti is not the only suffering country with a weak economy. GDP per capita of four of the eight countries with the highest rates of suffering population was less than $6,000 in 2012. Madagascar’s GDP per capita was less than $1,000 that year, among the lowest levels for the eight countries.

To identify the countries suffering the most, 24/7 Wall St. examined Gallup’s Global Suffering survey of 143 countries. We reviewed the eight countries where more than 30% of the people surveyed in 2012 rated their current life satisfaction as a four or worse on a scale of 1-10 in 2012. They also expected their life satisfaction five years in the future to be a four or worse as well. In addition to Gallup’s results, we reviewed International Monetary Fund data on GDP per capita, GDP, and unemployment, all for 2012. We also reviewed public perception of corruption from Transparency International 2013 Corruption Perception Index. Additional country-specific data came from the CIA World Factbook, the U.S.State Department, and, the IMF.

These are the eight countries where people suffer the most.

8. Iran
> Pct. suffering: 31%
> GDP per capita: $12,985
> Pct. viewing gov. as corrupt: 57%

More than 30% of surveyed Iranians said they were unhappy, rating their lives as four or worse on a scale of one to 10. The hardships caused by economic sanctions imposed on Iran the last few years have likely made matters worse for the country, according to Gallup’s Jan Sonnenschein. National unemployment in 2012 was 12.2%, among the highest in the world. The country’s GDP contracted by 1.9% in 2012 and is projected to contract an additional 1.5% next year, both among the worst in the world. According to the U.S. State department, Iranian men, women, and children are subjected to forced marriages, forced prostitution, forced labor, and other forms of exploitation. 

7. Macedonia
> Pct. suffering: 31%
> GDP per capita: $10,465
> Pct. who view gov. as corrupt: 51%

As many as 31% of surveyed Macedonians said they were unhappy with their lives in 2012, up from 25% in 2011. Since its founding in 1991, the Republic of Macedonia has struggled with conflicts between the country’s Orthodox Christian majority and its Muslim Albanian minority, which makes up about one-quarter of the population. The country’s economy is in a dire state. As of 2011, more than 30% of the country’s population lived in poverty, one of the highest rates in the world. In 2012, the country was one of just a few to see GDP contract. Macedonia had the highest unemployment rate of any country reporting to the IMF at 31.3% in 2012. The country also has problems with corruption. According to Transparency International’s recent survey, 77% of the Macedonian population believed the nation’s public officials and civil servants force was corrupt, and 87% thought the police were corrupt, both among the highest in the world.

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6. Madagascar
> Pct. suffering: 31%
> GDP per capita: $945
> Pct. who view gov. as corrupt: 57%

Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina staged a coup to seize power four years ago. This resulted in a sharp drop in foreign aid, which at one time accounted for 40% of the country’s budget. The unstable government has also caused foreign investment to decline considerably. With a GDP per capita in 2012 less than 2% of the U.S., Madagascar is one of the poorest economies in the world. As of 2012, more than 75% of the country’s residents lived below the poverty line. As of 2011, life expectancy in the country was just 63 years and more than 1 in 3 children under five were underweight, the sixth-highest proportion in the world. Madagascar is also one of the least safe countries in the world. According to a separate Gallup survey conducted in 2012, six in 10 of the country’s residents didn’t feel safe walking alone at night. In the U.S., 25% felt this way.

5. Hungary
> Pct. suffering: 32%
> GDP per capita: $19,496
> Pct. who view gov. as corrupt: 27%

Largely due to its continued struggles from the global economic crisis, Hungary’s GDP contracted by 1.7% last year, among the worst in the world. Roma, the historically persecuted minority residing in many European countries, make up 7% of Hungary’s population. The Roma have suffered from widespread poverty and often-violent acts of discrimination in recent years. According to Gallup’s Sonnenschein, recent actions by Hungary’s the government to amend the constitution to limit freedom of the press may contribute to suffering in the country.

4. Haiti
> Pct. suffering: 32%
> GDP per capita: $1,229
> Pct. who view gov. as corrupt: n/a

Haiti is a frequent victim of natural disasters, including hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, such as the 2010 catastrophic one that devastated the small country. A cholera epidemic, now in its fourth year, has also sickened hundreds of thousands of people and killed more than 8,000. Some advocates for Haiti have argued the UN is responsible for the epidemic, having failed to contain a peacekeeping-generated sewage in 2010, when the epidemic began. That year, the country’s GDP plummeted by roughly 5.4%, the largest decline of the countries surveyed by Gallup. According to Gallup’s Sonnenschein, international aid for the country is waning, and the country has not met most of its goals for recovery.

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3. Cambodia
> Pct. suffering: 34%
> GDP per capita: $2,395
> Pct viewing gov. as corrupt: 33%

Compared with the decades of war in Cambodia’s recent history, the last decade has been relatively stable. Earlier this decade, the country bolstered its garment manufacturing industry, the country also joined the WTO in 2004. It has also made progress controlling its AIDS epidemic. The country’s residents, however, are still suffering by many measures. Roughly four million residents live on less than $1.25 per day. An estimated 37% of the country’s children are malnourished. While 26% of Cambodian respondents rated their lives poorly in 2011, that number jumped to 34% last year. Further, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians have been displaced to make way for logging projects. Cambodia’s GDP improved between 2009 and 2012, but the country is still among the poorest in the world.

2. Armenia
> Pct. suffering: 37%
> GDP per capita: $5,924
> Pct. viewing gov. as corrupt: 61%

In 2012, Armenia’s the unemployment rate was 19%, one of the highest rates in the world. According to the BBC, Armenia’s unemployment and poverty are likely exacerbated by trade blockades imposed by bordering Turkey and Azerbaijan. Perhaps due to the economic upheaval of the last 10 years, there has been a mass exodus from Armenia. While the country’s population stayed fairly the same between 2009 and 2012, it is estimated that Armenia has lost nearly a quarter of its population since the Soviet Union’s collapse and Armenia’s declared independence. According to Sonnenschein, a recent survey asked former Soviet countries whether they viewed the collapse of the U.S.S.R. as a good or bad thing. More Armenians viewed it as a negative than any other country.

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1. Bulgaria
> Pct. suffering: 39%
> GDP per capita: $14,102
> Pct. who view gov. as corrupt: 55%

While Bulgaria has improved slightly since the 2011 Gallup survey, still a whopping 39% of surveyed Bulgarians said they were suffering last year, the worst of any country. Over a longer period — between 2009 and 2012 — the unemployment rate in Bulgaria increased from 6.8% to more than 12%. More than three-quarters of Bulgarians said political parties in their country were corrupt, and more than 70% said parliament was corrupt, both among the most in the world. Political protests — which have included self-immolations and overthrown governments — are common in the country. Bulgaria is one of the least affluent countries in the European Union, which it joined only after concerns over corruption and organized crime were raised. According to Gallup’s Sonnenschein, “Bulgaria had very high hopes when [it] joined the European Union in 2007, but not many of these hopes have materialized.”

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