According to a worldwide 2024 survey of people’s mental well-being, the UK is the second most miserable country on Earth. The Mental State of the World Report found that greater wealth and economic development do not necessarily lead to improved mental wellbeing.

While countries such as the Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka and Tanzania top the rankings, nations including Britain and Australia languish towards the bottom of the table.

The researchers from Sapien Labs, who compiled the report, suggest that factors such as smartphone usage — particularly among children — combined with the declining importance of family and community, are contributing to widespread dissatisfaction with life.

Only one landlocked former Soviet republic in Central Asia scored lower than the United Kingdom. Intrepid YouTuber Wendall, who has travelled the world seeking out interesting stories about how people live elsewhere, journeyed all the way from Walsall to the Uzbek capital Tashkent to find out what it’s like to live in Uzbekistan – a country supposedly even more depressing than Britain.

What he discovered instead was a thriving community with a cheerful, upbeat attitude to life and an absolute obsession with European football. There was also an instantly striking contrast with the people he has encountered during his travels around the UK.

In Walsall, Wendall spoke to people who felt that crime — particularly violent crime — was on the rise. One man said he had even “cried” at the state of the nation while watching the news.

There are no direct flights to Uzbekistan, so Wendall’s 4,000-mile journey involved a pit stop in Turkey, where he enjoyed a £12 pint at 5am. Prices, however, are far more reasonable in Tashkent.

His £60-a-night hotel was positively palatial compared with accommodation back home, and there was little of the austerity one might expect from a nation that spent 67 years as part of the USSR.

“In recent years it’s been slowly, carefully reopening to the world,” Wendall said. “On the surface, this seems a nation very much on the up, now open for tourism and business like never before.”

Certainly, there is a freewheeling attitude to life that you would not find in the UK. There are booths in the city park where locals can practise archery, and a stall in Tashkent’s bustling street market sells elegantly crafted — but wicked-looking — knives that would most definitely not be welcome on British city streets.

And, to his great surprise, most locals were more than happy to be seen on camera, whereas in the UK many people he interviewed were reluctant to show their faces on screen.

Uzbekistan has changed a great deal over the past 10 years, one local told him: “You can say that it changed a lot in terms of education, politics and freedom. There is no war. It’s peaceful.”

While wages were low in the immediate post-Soviet era, they are now on the rise, she added, and many Uzbeks who had been lured abroad by the prospect of a better way of life are returning home.

Tashkent’s subway system is a good deal cleaner — and more architecturally interesting — than the London Underground, Wendall said, and fares are far lower than anything you might pay for a comparable journey in the UK.

In the street markets, you can also pick up a replica Real Madrid shirt for a very low price. And while few locals speak much English, they will happily bellow the names of major European football clubs in an effort to establish some kind of connection with a non-Uzbek-speaking tourist.

While shopping in the city’s street markets, prices can seem quite alarming at first due to the exchange rate — one Uzbekistani som is equivalent to £0.000062. A simple stuffed flatbread can cost 5,000 som, which works out at around 30p.

For not much more, you can get a plate of plov, a rice-based dish with lamb, carrots and onions that is famed as the national dish of Uzbekistan. Wendall did not care for it much, but it is hard to complain at those prices.

Even a good-sized glass of brandy at one of the city’s poshest bars costs just £1.50. It is hard to see why Uzbeks have been described as even more miserable than Brits.

In the end, Wendall was delighted with his trip to the “world’s most miserable country”. He said: “It’s the supposedly most miserable, depressing country in the world — the only country more depressed than the UK. Well, I’ve met some wonderful people. I’ve been met with nothing but smiles, hospitality and a welcome I’ll never forget.”