OZ Mornings: Young adulthood no longer the happiest time of your life

Are you nostalgic for your 20s? As far back as 1973, happiness tended to follow a U-shaped curve, with peak happiness occurring in young adulthood and then dipping until an older age. However, this U-shaped happiness curve appears to be changing. A recent National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper suggests that life satisfaction is now more linear, and slowly increases with age. This means young adulthood is no longer one of the happiest times in a person’s life. “That is when people are just starting their lives. It shouldn’t be when they are most anxious, are most depressed and have no hope for the future,” Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution said. This concerning trend has appeared in 34 countries.