Mind health, measured by our metric, the Mind Health Quotient (MHQ), represents an individual’s capacity to navigate life’s challenges and function productively. It is a functional composite metric that aggregates across respondent ratings of 47 cognitive, emotional, social, and physical elements, capacities that support or diminish daily functioning. The young people (ages 18-24) with the highest mind health in the world live in Tanzania, in subsaharan Africa. Surprising? Maybe, but dig a little deeper, and it actually makes a lot of sense.

• In Tanzania, young people receive their first smartphone, on average, at the latest age in the world (age 18). A younger age of first smartphone ownership is associated with increased suicidal thoughts, aggression, and other problems in adulthood.
• Spirituality–defined as the sense of connection to a higher power or the divine, not any specific religion–is higher among young people in Tanzania than anywhere else in the world.
• Family bonds between young people and their parents in Tanzania are strong. The family has traditionally been the backbone of the social fabric and the primary source of emotional stability in childhood and across the lifespan.
• Additionally, young people in Tanzania consume far less ultra-processed food than their peers in Western countries, and have more time and safe spaces for free play. 

These conditions map onto the proven developmental inputs young people need to thrive: basic needs, identity and purpose, and strong social bonds and supportive relationships with adults.

Tanzania is an extreme case of a global pattern. 

One might expect today’s young adults to have better mind health than any generation that preceded them; particularly those living in high-income countries. Yet the opposite is true: the wealthier the country, the worse the mind health of its young adults. As school begins, let’s remember the lesson from Tanzania: sometimes the simplest inputs to thriving are the most important.