U.S. drops in new global happiness ranking. One age group bucks the trend
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: If you want to assess your well-being, imagine steps on a ladder. The top rung - think of it as a 10 - represents your best possible life. The lowest rung - zero - represents the worst. Considering your current life, which rung would you choose? Thousands of people's answers to this question in countries around the globe form the basis of an annual World Happiness Report. And this year, while Scandinavian countries stay at the top of the list, there's not great news for the U.S. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve of Oxford University is an author of the report.
JAN-EMMANUEL DE NEVE: We have seen the United States drop out of the Top 20. And so what we're seeing in the United States is huge intergenerational inequalities developing.
AUBREY: He says these differences are striking. People 60 and older are actually happier compared to young adults. In fact, the U.S. makes the Top 10 list on the global ranking for happiness among the older generations. And De Neve says there's likely a combination of factors to explain this.
DE NEVE: The big pressures on life - having small children, a mortgage to pay off, having to make your way in the world of work - those pressures have likely tapered off a little bit.
AUBREY: This is not completely surprising for older people in many countries, especially those with strong social safety nets. But what's changing that's unexpected is that happiness among young people has fallen off significantly. It's not only the U.S., but also Canada, Australia and, to some extent, parts of Europe and Britain.
DE NEVE: There's a dramatic decrease in the self-reported well-being of people aged 30 or below. And that is highly concerning because we would expect youth to actually start out at a higher level of well-being than middle-aged individuals.
AUBREY: Many factors likely drive this, says John Helliwell of the University of British Columbia - everything from concerns about climate change to political polarization to social media.
JOHN HELLIWELL: People are hearing that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and the young especially are feeling more threatened by it.
AUBREY: While many share some of the shame, anger and strife of modern life, he says what can be helpful to focus on is positive social connections and potential solutions.
Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
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