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The Global Loss of the U-Shaped Curve of Happiness

Happiness used to be U-shaped by age, with middle age the least happy. Not anymore. Young people are now the least happy.

In early April, the Dartmouth labor economist and adviser to the UN David Blanchflower(goes by “Danny”), reached out to us (Jon, Zach, and Jean Twenge), telling us that he had independently found the same pattern of youth decline that we have been examining across numerous datasets and countries. We have now found, astonishingly, that in the years since 2020, ill-being declines in 48 countries - Algeria; Angola; Argentina; Australia; Austria; Brazil; Canada; Chile; Colombia; Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador; Egypt; Finland, France; Germany; Greece, Guatemala; Iceland, India, Iraq; Israel; Italy; Japan; Jordan; Mexico; Morocco; Netherlands; Nigeria; Norway; New Zealand; Pakistan; Paraguay; Peru; Philippines; Saudi Arabia; Slovenia, South Africa; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Tunisia; UK; Uruguay; USA; Venezuela and Yemen. The 34 new countries, from both the developing and developed world are as follows - Armenia; Bangladesh; Belarus; Belgium; Bolivia; Cameroon; China; Costa Rica; Côte d’Ivoire; Democratic Republic of Congo; Dominican Republic; El Salvador; Georgia; Ghana; Honduras; Ireland; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Malaysia; Mozambique; Nicaragua; Panama; Portugal; Puerto Rico; Russia; Singapore; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Tanzania; Trinidad & Tobago; Ukraine; UAE; Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe.

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