Australia is the tenth happiest country in the world, but data shows the older are much happier than the young.
Meanwhile Greece, at 64, and Cyprus, at 50, see the opposite, with the younger much happier than the old.
This is according to the annual World Happiness report, which features responses from people in 143 countries to rank the world’s ‘happiest’ nations.
Conducted in partnership with the UN, Gallup World Polls and the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, respondents were asked to evaluate their life satisfaction over the past three years on a scale of one to 10.
The top 10 in order were Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Australia.
Australia’s happiness ranking for under 30s is 19, while it jumps back up to nine for over 60s.
“For the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, happiness has decreased in all age groups, but especially for the young, so much so that the young are now, in 2021-2023, the least happy age group,” the report wrote.
Young people are struggling in many regions of the world but Europe has shown an opposite trend.
Greece sees a ranking of 67 for old but 53 for young, while the two middle age categories (lower and upper) are 58 and 56 respectively.
In Cyprus, the young are also the happiest with a 51 ranking and a 57 for old.
Lower middle age and upper middle age sees a significant gap of 49 and 62.
So according to this data, Australia sees its population gradually get happier as the grow old but Greeks slowly become less happy.
Cypriots see sudden drops in happiness pretty quickly as the ages go up.
Researchers consider factors such as life expectancy, GDP, having someone to count on, a sense of freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruptions.
These factors explain the differences across nations but the rankings themselves are based only on the answer people give when asked to rate their own lives.
The top 10 countries have remained largely the same since the COVID pandemic but in the next 10, it shows Eastern European countries are rising.
“Effective policymaking relies on solid data, yet there remains a significant lack of it in various parts of the world,” said the CEO of Gallup Jon Clifton.
He said the report attempts to bridge some of these gaps by offering insights into people’s perceptions of life on Earth.
“It offers more than just national rankings; it provides analytics and advice for evidence-based planning and policymaking.
“Our role in research on world happiness is a natural fit with our longstanding mission: providing leaders with the right information about what people say makes life worthwhile.”