The Elderly Are Flourishing —but Young Adults Aren't

"Young adulthood has long been considered a carefree time, a period of limitless opportunity and few obligations," per the New York Times. No longer. A new study based on surveys of more than 200,000 people in over 22 middle- and high-income countries finds young adults are struggling with happiness, physical and mental health, financial security, the quality of relationships, and finding meaning in life. Decades of research has shown young and older people usually have high ratings for these measures, while middle-aged people have lower ratings, resulting in a U-shaped curve over a lifetime. But now, "that U-shaped curve is starting to flatten," per the Times.

As part of the Global Flourishing Study, researchers analyzed participants' responses about their finances, relationships, happiness, health, character, and sense of meaning to determine the degree to which a person is "flourishing," or in a state where all aspects of life are good. "Perhaps one of the more troubling features of this data is that we find when we aggregate across the 22 countries, flourishing tends to increase with age so that the youngest individuals are reporting the lowest levels of flourishing," says Tyler VanderWeele, director of Harvard University's Human Flourishing Program and lead author of the study published Wednesday in Nature Mental Health, per CNN.

Though the U-shaped curve was observed in Japan and Kenya, flourishing stayed relatively flat up to age 50 for participants in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, UK, Germany, Sweden, and Australia. The difference between the younger and older adults was largest in the US. Those aged 18 to 29 had a flourishing score of 6.4 out of 10, compared with nearly 8 for those aged 70 and older, per the CBC. One outside researcher says the data reflects the "long-term consequences of being hyperfocused on status and power," per the Times. Others link the study to other research highlighting social isolation and loneliness. Researchers will continue collecting data and attempt to uncover explanations behind it through 2027. (More young adults stories.)