Edward Conard

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  • “…a very valuable contribution.” - Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and director of the National Economic Council, president emeritus, Harvard University
  • “…serious thinking for serious thinkers. …a thought-provoking blueprint for growing middle- and working-class incomes.” - Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts
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  • “…a comprehensive explanation of the modern economy.” - Julian Robertson, Founder, Tiger Management
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Upside of Inequality Oxford Unintended Consequences

AI Summary. Eleven studies find declines in life satisfaction and happiness among young adults in the US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK. In these countries life satisfaction now rises with age across the lifespan, as young people's life satisfaction dropped sharply while that of people 45 and over stayed flat.

Jean Twenge and David Blanchflower National Bureau of Economic Research
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.@jean_twenge and David Blanchflower cite 11 studies confirming a decline in life satisfaction particularly among the unmarried young. “The U-shape in wellbeing by age that used to exist…is now gone, replaced by a crisis in wellbeing among the young.”

Is life satisfaction falling among young adults in English-speaking countries?

Core argument: Eleven studies show declining life satisfaction and happiness among young adults over the past decade or so in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK.

Eleven studies show declines in life satisfaction and happiness among young adults in the last decade or so. We found evidence for this in the U.S, and in Australia, Canada, Ireland. New Zealand and the UK. There is broad evidence across all of these English-speaking countries that happiness and life satisfaction since 2020 rise with age. There is an initial hump in the data in the early 20s before the life satisfaction declines to a low in midlife and then picks up. This is shown in Chart 1 using single year of age data. By 2022-2024 life satisfaction rises in age across the lifespan. Parts 2 and 3 of the table report data for the married and the nonmarried. The evidence of the initial hump is present for the married but not the non-married, where there is an obvious U-shape through 2015-2018. These phenomena have not been observed in any other country, which in general had lower marriage and divorce rates. [But] by 2022-2024 everything had changed, and both the married and unmarried show rising satisfaction in age. The life satisfaction of the young dropped sharply between 2016-2018 and 2022-2024. For those age 45 and over it remained basically flat.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Eleven studies show declining life satisfaction and happiness among young adults over the past decade or so in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK.
  2. Life satisfaction of the young dropped sharply between 2016–2018 and 2022–2024, while for those aged 45 and over it remained basically flat.
  3. Through 2015–2018 an initial hump in life satisfaction in the early 20s appeared among the married but not the non-married, who showed a U-shape; by 2022–2024 both groups show satisfaction rising with age.

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