Across multiple datasets, researchers are observing a downward shift in reported life satisfaction and happiness, with the steepest declines showing up among young adults.
A notable recent working paper focused on six English-speaking countries reports that young adulthood has become a period of unusually low life satisfaction compared with prior decades. One implication is that the older “U-shaped” pattern (higher well-being in youth and older age, lower in midlife) appears to be weakening or disappearing in some places as younger groups’ ratings fall.
It’s important to read this as descriptive population-level signal, not a diagnosis of any one person. Survey measures of life satisfaction and happiness can move with economic conditions, social connection, and broader cultural change—and different surveys use different question wording and scales. Still, the cross-country pattern and the age-concentration (bigger drops among younger adults) are the key features being highlighted.
Sources
- https://www.nber.org/papers/w33490
- https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w33490/w33490.pdf
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2990956/
- https://www.interdependence.org/the-global-loss-of-the-u-shaped-curve-of-happiness/
- https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20251118ny27967/americas-happiness-slump-new-report-shows-us-in-sharp-decline
