The World Happiness Report 2024 – Happiness and Age – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #932

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #932 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here.

Word Happiness Report 2024 brings information from around the world about the happiness levels among people. The focus in this report is on the relationship between happiness and age, and the happiness of people at different stages of life.

In the West, the received wisdom was that the young are the happiest, and that happiness thereafter declines until middle age, followed by substantial recovery. But since 2006-10, happiness among the young has fallen sharply among the young (15 – 24) in North America, to the point where young are less happy than the old. Youth happiness has also fallen in Western Europe, but less sharply.

By contrast, happiness at every age has risen sharply in Central and Eastern Europe, so that young people are now equally happy in both parts of Europe. However, in the South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa, happiness has fallen at every age.

The happiness rankings of countries are based on life evaluations, as the more stable measure of the quality of people’s lives.

The measurement of subjective wellbeing continues to rely on three main wellbeing indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions. However, the rankings are based mainly on life evaluations. The usual happiness rankings are based on three-years average of life evaluations. For this report, the measuring period is 2021 to 2023.

Country Rankings on Overall Happiness Score

Top 10

1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Israel
6. Netherlands
7. Norway
8. Luxembourg
9. Switzerland
10. Australia

Lowest 10

134. Zambia

135. Eswatini

136. Malawi

137. Botswana

138. Zimbabwe

139. Congo

140. Sierra Leone

141. Lesotho

142. Lebanon

143. Afghanistan

Others Countries of Interest

• Canada #15
• UK #20
• UAE #22
• USA #23
• Saudi Arabia #28
• Brazil #44
• South Korea #52
• China #60
• Russia #72
• Indonesia #80
• Iraq #92
• Türkiye #98
• Iran #100
• Pakistan #108
• India #126
• Bangladesh #129

National average life evaluations is measured along six key variables: GDP per capita (purchasing power parity), healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption.

Country Rankings on Happiness of the Young (below 30 years)

#1 – Lithuania

#2 – Israel

#3 – Serbia

#4 – Iceland

#5 – Denmark

#7 – Finland

#19 – Australia

#32 – UK

#35 – UAE

#42 – Saudi Arabia

#52 – South Korea

#62 – USA

#79 – China

#96 – Iran

#101 – Türkiye

#107 – Pakistan

#127 – India

#128 – Bangladesh

#143 – Afghanistan

Country Rankings on Happiness of the Old (over 60 years)

#1 – Denmark

#2 – Finland

#3 – Norway

#4 – Sweden

#5 – Iceland

#10 – USA

#11 – UAE

#20 – UK

#27 – Saudi Arabia

#30 – China

#37 – Brazil

#59 – South Korea

#71 – Malaysia

#92 – Türkiye

#103 – Iran

#120 – Bangladesh

#121 – India

#122 – Pakistan

#143 – Afghanistan

Ranking of Countries on Life Evaluation by Age Group, 2021 – 2023

Sum Up

The World Happiness Report 2024 is a long report with lots of data on multiple variables. It makes interesting and educative reading. However, it would not be appropriate for this blog post to go into too many details. Some summary points are given below.

The biggest change in overall ranking is within the top 20. Though Finland is still No. 1, but other countries have changed significantly.

 In many countries, young people have expressed greater happiness than the old people.

The inequality has increased by more than 20% over the past dozen years, in all regions and age groups, to an extent that differs a lot by age and by region.

In 2021 -2023, negative emotions were in every region more prevalent for females than males, with almost everywhere the gender gap being larger at higher ages. Negative emotions are more frequent now than in 2006-2010 everywhere, except East Asia and both parts of Europe.

Positive emotions have not changed much, while still remaining more frequent for the young than for older age groups.

Benevolence increased after the COVID19 pandemic, for all generations, but especially so for Millennials and Generation Z, who are even more likely than their predecessors to help others in need.

In almost every global region, comparably measured feelings of social support are more than twice as prevalent as loneliness. This is a positive development because social interactions add to happiness.

Concluded.

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For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intention to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, however, it happens unintentionally, I offer my sincere regrets.

References:

The World Happiness Report is a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Center, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the WHR’s Editorial Board. Complete report available on https://worldhappiness.report/