World Happiness Report: Why Gen Z is the unhappiest generation today

The annual World Happiness Report has been published for the year 2024 and there’s not much to be happy about.

According to the report, which was launched in 2012 to support the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, something is going terribly wrong for the young people of the United States and Europe, as they report to be unhappier than their aged counterparts.

In fact, the US has dropped out of the top 20 of the world’s happiest countries for the first time owing to a significant decline in the reported well-being of Americans under 30.

We take a closer look at the rankings and analyse why young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are experiencing a decline in happiness, with the phenomenon likened to a midlife crisis.

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What the World Happiness Report reveals

The World Happiness Report, which is based on data from US market research company Gallup and analysed by a global team now led by the University of Oxford, has declared Finland to be the world’s happiest country, seventh time in a row after the Nordic country acquired a score of 7.7. Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Israel rounded out the top five nations. It’s important to note that the findings predated the Hamas massacre of 7 October and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, stayed at the bottom of the 143 countries surveyed in the report.

Notably, for the first time since the report was published more than a decade ago, the US and Germany dropped out of the top 20 happiest nations. The US dropped to 23 from the previous ranking of 15 while Germany fell to 24. In turn, Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 at 12 and 13.

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The report further noted that the happiest countries no longer include any of the world’s largest countries. In the top 10 countries only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million. In the whole of the top 20, only Canada (ranked 15) and the UK (ranked 20) have populations over 30 million.

India ranked 126, the same as last year, in the happiness index. Factors such as marital status, social engagement, and physical health also influence life satisfaction among older Indians.

Young driving unhappiness levels

This year’s report has revealed that there’s a decline in happiness for Americans under 30 years old, specifically in the age group of 15-24. In fact, the report said, “The US decline is at least partly attributable to Americans under age 30 feeling worse about their lives.”

If you look at the report closely, you will find that for Americans over 60, the US ranks in the top 10, but for those under 30, it drops to 62nd place.

“Youth, especially in North America, are experiencing a mid-life crisis today,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a University of Oxford economics professor and one of the report’s editors.

While the unhappiness is rising in the young in the US, it is not the same in central and eastern Europe where happiness increased substantially at all ages, while in Western Europe people of all ages reported similar levels of happiness.

Why the young are unhappy

But what’s making the young so unhappy?

While the report doesn’t outline the reasons, experts suspect heavy use of social media to be one of the key reasons for the high unhappiness rates. Social media has been attributed to driving down the self-esteem of the young. In fact, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy had called for legislation on the use of social media for the young, citing that adolescents were spending nearly five hours a day and a third were staying up until midnight on week nights on their devices. He had said that legislation was required to protect and reduce the harms of social media to young people.

The excessive use of social media by the young has also led to a loneliness pandemic, which is affecting the happiness levels of people.

But social media is not alone to be blamed. Experts in psychology and neurology, and some young Americans themselves, blame worries about money, and their future wellbeing for being unhappy. For instance, one 28-year-old Seattle resident when asked if they were happy or unhappy, said that they felt “burdened”. And for them that feeling arises from the immediate tasks of the day but also concerns like housing, inflation, the war and climate change.

The Intergenerational Foundation charity speaking to The Guardian in reaction to the report said: “Young adults are being hit from all sides by a toxic combination of government policy, a housing affordability crisis, stagnating wages, and a high cost of living.

“No wonder their generation is experiencing unprecedented levels of mental ill-health as their futures look so bleak.”

Another study from Finland has also found that a stronger embrace of “ woke ” beliefs is linked to increased levels of anxiety and depression. Researchers found a link between an increase in reports of anxiety and depression and a greater level of agreement with critical social justice beliefs.

Elderly are a happy bunch

While the World Happiness Report shows the young being unhappy, it showed that the older generation enjoy a higher satisfaction in life. As per the report, the world’s happiest country for those above the age of 60 is Denmark. This is followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and the US.

And what’s driving their happiness? As per The Guardian, a spiralling stock market and a global property boom have given the over-55s a level of wealth unknown in human history.

With inputs from agencies