After decades of being the happiest, young adults are now the unhappiest age group

Scientists worldwide are seeing a striking change in people’s happiness throughout their lives. After decades of being the happiest age group, young adults are now the unhappiest. At the same time, the happiness dip around the midlife crisis around age 50 is now less severe, the Volkskrant reports based on a study by American and British scientists in 46 countries, including the Netherlands.

According to the study, published in the journal PLOS One, happiness was fairly stable since the 1970s. Young adults and people over 60 were the happiest. Many people’s happiness peaked in their late 20s, when people typically have a steady partner, a job, and a home. Happiness declined somewhat with the arrival of children and the accompanying dip in sleep and free time, culminating in the midlife crisis around 50. From around 60, it recovered.

This U-shaped happiness curve was long considered one of the most persistent patterns in social sciences, according to the researchers. But in the past decade, the U-shape has given way to a mountain with ever-higher peaks in happiness as people get older. The biggest shift is that young adults are no longer among the happiest age groups, but are now the unhappiest group.

Globally, teenagers and young adults are increasingly reporting mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. The mental health of young women, in particular, is deteriorating. The reason is unclear, but the researchers think performance pressure and social media may play a role.

That is also happening in the Netherlands, happiness researcher Martijn Hendriks of Erasmus University told the Volkskrant after delving into the study.

“Today’s young adults have spent much more time in front of a screen since childhood than previous generations.” He suspects that social media and the “excessive mutual comparison” have a particularly negative impact. In the Netherlands, the housing market also likely plays a role. “Home prices have risen sharply, and older generations have particularly benefited from this. They have much more wealth, while young adults struggle to buy a first home.”

He added that young adults aren’t all utterly unhappy. The vast majority of young Dutch people still rate their lives a 7 out of 10 or higher. Older age groups are simply happier.

Hendriks also put a question mark on the sky-high happiness scores of people over 70. He pointed out that from that age on, it is mostly the fit, mentally healthy seniors who are still around to complete surveys. “That’s distorting.”