It isn't only an American phenomenon. The so-called happiness gap is growing in many parts of the world, the researchers noted. While people over the age of 60 are happier than people under the age of 30 in countries like the U.S. and Canada, young people are happier than old people in Central and Eastern Europe.
At least. The researchers found people reached their happiest when they arrived at the age of 70. Life satisfaction decreased between the ages of nine and 16, increased a little until the age of 70, and then declined again until the age of 96.
There are some caveats worth mentioning: When it comes to happiness, a lot of research on the subject that's been conducted over time suggests that it generally follows a U-shaped curve, meaning that happiness is at a high when you're in your 20s as well, before it dips in middle age and then shoots back up again in ...
The majority of respondents, however, said they were 20-something, drifting up to 40 here and there, but they all gave a similar answer: childhood, teen years, college and 20s were, in their eyes, the best times of their lives.
The Economist's international survey of happiness gathered data from America's General Social Survey, Eurobarometer and Gallup finding an upward trajectory of happiness until age 30, a downward trend into midlife, with the lowest point reached at age 46, and up to higher levels again after the 50's.
Crudely speaking, you may conclude that you are at your sexual peak in your 20s, your physical peak in your 30s, your mental peak in your 40s and 50s and at your happiest in your 60s – but these are just averages, so your own trajectories may follow very different paths.
So here's a greeting you won't find on the Hallmark birthday card rack: “Welcome to your 40s – the official unhappiest age of your life!” For more than 20 years researchers have been studying happiness as a “curve” and they've found that in your 40s you're at your lowest!
Surprising Findings: The 2 Ages When People Are Happiest
But, a few years ago researchers identified the two ages in an adult's life when you are likely to be at your happiest. Experts from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences found that happiness peaks at the ages of 23 and 69.
Unhappiness is hill-shaped in age and the average age where the maximum occurs is 49 with or without controls. There is an unhappiness curve. I document hump or hill shapes in age in various measures of unhappiness in many countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.
Older people are happier people.
As they aged, older adults rated their life satisfaction progressively higher, with happiness rating rising gradually and steadily from age 50 through the decade of the 90s.” Life satisfaction IS fairly high in the 20s but not as high as it will be in the years after 60.
Yet a recent study found that the age at which men is happiest is 37. This is because by that stage they have got rid of most of their childish insecurities and often achieved some success, but have not begun to rapidly disintegrate. But how can we possibly know this is the happiest age?
Age and generation both matter for happiness. As between generations, those born before 1965 (Boomers and their predecessors) have life evaluations about one-quarter of a point higher than those born after 1980 (Millennials and Gen Z).
Whites are considerably more likely to report that they are “very happy” (35 percent) than blacks (24 percent) when respondents are pooled over the entire 1972 to 2014 period. Whites are also half as likely to say they are “not too happy” (10 percent) than blacks (20 percent).
By contrast unmarried childless men, and especially unmarried fathers are the least happy—with less than 15% of these men saying they are “very happy.” In other words, married men (ages 18-55) in America are about twice as likely to be very happy, compared to their unmarried peers.
Married people are persistently 30 percentage points happier than unmarried people, the data indicate.
The U-shaped happiness curve dictates that "happiness rises initially to a peak around age 30 and then declines into midlife and then rises again after age 70," according to David Blanchflower, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College.
Research shows that the older you get, the more self-assured and content you are. In fact, those in their 60s are more likely to be happier and, according to a recent study, they're also more self-confident overall than most of those in their younger decades.
It's subtle, but it seems the more siblings a person has, the likelier they are to be happy. Sibling related happiness seems to even out past three siblings, but it's interesting to note that that the “3” response group also features the largest “Unhappy” response.
Gender and geography play a role: In the poll, men said the perfect age is 47, and women 53. In the Midwest, the perfect age is 50. In the East, it's 53 and the West it's 47. Even the perfect age can age.
The observed age pattern for daily stress was remarkably strong: stress was relatively high from age 20 through 50, followed by a precipitous decline through age 70 and beyond.
Across the world, depressive symptoms and midlife crisis are at their worst at 47.2 years of age. Research in 132 countries demonstrates that after 47.2 years of age, people started to feel better. Generation Z thinks that people don't start to look old until they are in their late 50s.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons conducted a poll to see when we reach peak attractiveness and apparently it's in your 30s for both men and women. Women are reportedly most attractive at age 30 while men reach peak attractiveness at age 38.
Maximum strength typically peaks in our late 20s to early 30s. Muscle mass diminishes at an average rate of 3-8% per decade after age 30. Sarcopenia can accelerate after the age of 60. Lifestyle choices, such as diet and activity level, significantly influence the rate of decline.
Most established adults we interviewed seemed to recognize that they were happier in their 30s than they were in their 20s, and this impacted how they thought about some of the signs of physical aging that they were starting to encounter.