For the first time in the history of the report, the US dropped out of the top twenty happiest nations. The youth poll (30 and under) is a disaster for the US, Germany, Canada, France, Japan, and China. 
Please consider the World Happiness Report for 2024.
Key Happiness Details
- Overall Rankings: The top 10 countries have remained much the same since before COVID. Finland is still top, with Denmark now very close, and all five Nordic countries in the top 10. But in the next 10, there is more change, with the transition countries of Eastern Europe rising in happiness (especially Czechia, Lithuania and Slovenia). Partly for this reason the United States and Germany have fallen to 23 and 24 in the rankings.
- Happiness Trends by Age Group: In North America, happiness has fallen so sharply for the young that they are now less happy than the old. By contrast, in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the young are much happier than the old.
- Global Trends: In most countries life satisfaction drops gradually from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. Globally, young people aged 15-24 still report higher life satisfaction than older adults. But the picture varied by region. Youth wellbeing fell in North America, Western Europe, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. In the rest of the world it rose.
- Negativity: Negative emotions are more frequent than in 2006-2010 everywhere except East Asia and both parts of Europe.
- Millennials and Zoomers: Age and generation both matter for happiness. As between generations, those born before 1965 (Boomers and their predecessors) have life evaluations about one-quarter of a point higher than those born after 1980 (Millennials and Gen Z). Within each generation, life evaluations rise with age for those in the older generations and fall with age for the younger ones, with little age effect for those in between.
Happiness Age 30 and Below
Clearly this was taken before the Hamas attack in Israel.
Q: Where’s the US?
A: #62
Australia is #19, Germany is #47, France #48, Canada #58, Japan #73, China #79.
Happiness Age 60 and Above
The US, Canada, and Australia are in the top ten list of happiness age 60 and older.
Serious Economic Implications
Unhappy 30-year-olds don’t have kids because they don’t see a future.
In the US, those age 30 and younger believe they will be worse off than their parents. I think they are correct in that assessment.
The economy is allegedly booming, but only the asset holders have benefitted.
Gen Z, the Most Pessimistic Generation in History
Young adults are more skeptical of government and pessimistic about the future than any living generation before them. This is with reason, and it’s likely to decide the election.
Economic Reality
Gen Z may be the first generation in US history that is not better off than their parents.
Many have given up on the idea they will ever be able to afford a home.
The economy is allegedly booming (I disagree). Regardless, stress over debt is high with younger millennials and zoomers.
This has been a constant theme of mine for many months.
Credit Card and Auto Delinquencies Soar
Credit card debt surged to a record high in the fourth quarter. Even more troubling is a steep climb in 90 day or longer delinquencies.
Record High Credit Card Debt
Credit card debt rose to a new record high of $1.13 trillion, up $50 billion in the quarter. Even more troubling is the surge in serious delinquencies, defined as 90 days or more past due.
For nearly all age groups, serious delinquencies are the highest since 2011.
Auto Loan Delinquencies
Serious delinquencies on auto loans have jumped from under 3 percent in mid-2021 to to 5 percent at the end of 2023 for age group 18-29.Age group 30-39 is also troubling. Serious delinquencies for age groups 18-29 and 30-39 are at the highest levels since 2010.
For further discussion please see Credit Card and Auto Delinquencies Soar, Especially Age Group 18 to 39
Generational Homeownership Rates
The above chart is from the Apartment List’s 2023 Millennial Homeownership Report
Those struggling with rent are more likely to be Millennials and Zoomers than Generation X, Baby Boomers, or members of the Silent Generation.
The same age groups struggling with credit card and auto delinquencies.
On Average Everything is Great
Average it up, and things look pretty good. This is why we have seen countless stories attempting to explain why people should be happy.
Krugman Blames Partisanship
OK, there is a fair amount of partisanship in the polls.
However, Biden isn’t struggling from partisanship alone. If that was the reason, Biden would not be polling so miserably with Democrats in general, blacks, and younger voters.
This allegedly booming economy left behind the renters and everyone under the age of 40 struggling to make ends meet.
Many Are Addicted to “Buy Now, Pay Later” Plans
Buy Now Pay Later, BNPL, plans are increasingly popular. It’s another sign of consumer credit stress.
For discussion, please see Many Are Addicted to “Buy Now, Pay Later” Plans, It’s a Big Trap
The study did not break things down by home owners vs renters, but I strongly suspect most of the BNPL use is by renters.
What About Jobs?
Another seemingly strong jobs headline falls apart on closer scrutiny. The massive divergence between jobs and employment continued into February.
Payrolls vs Employment Gains Since March 2023
- Nonfarm Payrolls: 2,602,000
- Employment Level: +144,000
- Full Time Employment: -284,000
For more details of the weakening labor markets, please see Jobs Up 275,000 Employment Down 184,000
CPI Hot Again
For discussion of the CPI inflation data for February, please see CPI Hot Again, Rent Up at Least 0.4 Percent for 30 Straight Months
Also note the Producer Price Index (PPI) Much Hotter Than Expected in February
Major Economic Cracks
There are economic cracks in spending, cracks in employment, and cracks in delinquencies.
But there are no cracks in the CPI. It’s coming down much slower than expected. And the PPI appears to have bottomed.
Add it up: Inflation + Recession = Stagflation.
Election Impact
In 2020, younger voters turned out in the biggest wave in history. And they voted for Biden.
Younger voters are not as likely to vote in 2024, and they are less likely to vote for Biden.
The Journal noted nearly one-third of voters under 30 have an unfavorable view of both Biden and Trump, a higher number than all older voters. Sixty-three percent of young voters think neither party adequately represents them.
Young voters in 2020 were energized to vote against Trump. Now they have thrown in the towel.
And Biden telling everyone how great the economy is only rubs salt in the wound.
Conclusions
Two completely different polls show millennials and zoomers are unhappy. And they are unhappy for the reasons I stated.
Many have concluded they will never be able to afford a house or have kids. Those who have concluded that are likely correct.
For more discussion, please see Gen Z, the Most Pessimistic Generation in History, May Decide the Election
Great article
The gap between young happiness and old happiness clarifies how badly a country has taken a wrong turn in governance. The US is a world leader here.
I was miserable in my twenties and happy in my late 70’s. My twenties could hardly have been worse with government forced military service and subsequent unemployment. Give me old age any day.
What is the basis of “happiness?” As I have experienced in 74 years, “happiness” in material life is always relative. It comes and goes like winter and summer. Real happiness is from within the heart when one knows the self as eternal and entirely separate from the body in which one is riding.
…or…
you realise that the “self” is a by-product of the thought process and has no independent existence whatsoever, thereby dissolving the fundamental duality which is the core of all conflict and unhappiness – the “me” and the “not-me”….
Everything is about $ and most dont have any. Maybe it cant buy happiness but it tskes a lot to just live here. Unless u like the streets.
It comes down to atheism is a diseased condition. Atheism is increasing with the progress of the Age of Kali.
I wonder how much of the unhappiness is due to the lack of accountability and the severing of the link between effort and reward. The U.S. has become a nation of victims that blame someone else for their (fill in the blank). I can’t believe that that type of thinking is conducive to good mental health and happiness.
Getting something without earning it breeds resent towards the giver and self hatred by the receiptant.
All those big social welfare countries are happier. Mmmm. Maybe there is a lesson there.
France is probably the country with the highest social spending. In any case she is the tax champion. But its score is miserable
not promoting it, but all my tax bills here in the US? LOL. Completely out of control.
The thing about Northern Europe is that corruption is relatively low, trust in others relatively high and income differences less pronounced. All things that drive a happy society and i believe go a long way to explain these consistently high scores. In the USA in particular trends in all three of these things different as far as I can tell. And deteriorating more rapidly too. Secondly, social welfare is not a problem per se as long as people are in support of the system. And norther Europe as a whole tends to be much more community minded and in willing to be relatively high taxes as long as the money is perceived to be spent for its purpose.
That’s too narrow a view. There are so many other factors in each of these countries.
Oh, for sure. And there are a few points about Northern Europe that are not great at all, plus tons of nuances and regional differences. But I think my points were a few key ones that in my view are of interest to the US context too, because they seem to be driving away from them.
Yeah, like lack of diversity.
I live in SE Asia, and I disagree with this survey.
No way canada is happier than USA. Total BS survey
American kids suffer from Type II diabetes from age 5. Many under 30 are impaired and obese. The standard American eliminated the US from under 30. We are #10 in the over sixties. The total is #23.
Health is a factor in happiness.
We have been told for more than 50 years that we were ruining the environment and using up resources. Whether we cut back to save the world, or because environmental karma bit us. the future was going to be more impoverished.
Happiness is a state of mind, as many philosophers have said. The first that comes to my mind is Abe Lincoln. So the task in front of us is 1) developing a happy mind. The power of positive thinking. and 2) adjusting the economy to put a more comfortable and equitable poverty, for everyone, first.
US young people needs a travel to Cuba or Senegal. The girls can add Iran to the list. A real one, looking for a job and renting a house in that places.
They would come very happy to their country, without complaints about fast food and hugging every policeman they see.
Complete BS.
+
Veiled attack on Iran.
I can speak to this.
As someone who has lived in the third world for many years and experienced living around people who still retain the human qualities long since extinguished in the US.
Your emotional life will be far richer in almost any 3rd world country. The Solomon Islands described by Paul Theroux as worse than the Congo is still a far emotionally richer and more interesting place than in WA or the island of wealth obsessed brainwashed droids I live around. The uniformity here is stultifying.
The issue is – being raised in hell makes hell appear normal and more heavenly places look like hell.
Your inculcation into a western life will make the benefits of the 3rd world life invisible to you. You haven’t the capacity to see and feel it. Nearly everyone from the west is emotionally frozen. It’s why SSRI’s are the plate de jour.
That’s why traveling people from the US or sailboat cruisers or cruise ship travelers stick to their own kind. The others are an unfathomable cryptic mystery that discomforts them.
“Nearly everyone from the west is emotionally frozen.”
Emotionally frozen!?!?! Are you daft? Last I checked the west is an emotional volcano. It is filled to the brim with unconscious people who are vomiting thier emotions all over the place. Zero impulse control and zero consciousness. In the west the Ego is firmly in the driver’s seat. Emotions run unchecked and wild.
You speak about a “veiled attack on Iran”? Very good joke.
even Israel among the most happy countries (5) …That must ve been a little while ago then …
….unless of course Izzies enjoy murdering and starving Palestinian children….
IMO the “Reptilian Overlord” types want an unhappy people. 1) Keep people fighting each other for leftover scraps from the asset holders. 2) “save the planet” by decreasing hope for the future because of “cliiiiiiiiiiimate”. 3) Keep the Powers that Be in power by promising “your fair share” of the scraps.
I’ll check back later to see if anyone mentions Congress.
Has there ever been a generation that hasn’t struggled to make ends meet in their 20’s and 30’s and even 40’s? I didn’t think so.
The Blue Zone pg 113 : between 38Y and 75Y the happiness chart is down. Thereafter happiness is rising. Nations with the longest life expectancy are at the top.
But where is Japan.
With enough money and profits, it’s possible to move to any of the “happy” countries or anywhere else for that matter. Why worry about red states or blue states when the only state that matters is the happy one.
I realize that your focus is on the economy, but there are many other reasons for the under-30 generations to be unhappy. For example, simply finding a mate – college-educated women outnumber college-educated men, yet the women typically will not lower their standards to date/marry/have children with blue-collar men or those who make less money than they do. Also, the younger generations are more medicated than the older generations, starting with drugs like Ritalin in grade school and continuing with antidepressants, etc. as they get older. And of course, there is the obesity problem and all the associated health problems, though that affects pretty much all generations. The list goes on.
As JFK said, you can’t measure everything with GNP (or a focus strictly on economic issues).
Definitely the marriage/common law problem is a big factor (first in getting married/shacked up and then in staving off divorce which for most men = loss of assets and access to kids)
But I also wonder about the prevalence of TV (in the 90’s and early 2000s) and now the internet (since the early 2000s). Older shows like ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous’ and later the Kardashian crap showed people living the most glamorous lifestyles possible. Watching too much of that tends to lead to envy and resentment that you aren’t also living that lifestyle that all the shows/commercials etc say you ‘deserve’. I wonder how much those Euro countries watch (or ignore) that same stuff and how much that factors into it.
And yet another person is oblivious to the most important topic in the world today. Youngsters have no hope for the future, well the educated ones. The swamp doesn’t matter. There is no future! Speaking as a Physicist, it is obvious that the world will come to an end and there will be the sixth mass extinction on this planet!
The women won’t lower their “standards” for non-college men and those men are realizing that a high percentage of the college educated women are bat shit woke and crazy.
By this metric, the Palestinians must be the happiest, most secure people in the world!
After all, with no economy, a per capita income of $13/day and the need for the UNRWA to bring in 500 trucks of aid EVERY DAY, the population under age 16 made up 50% of the population prior to Oct 7, 2023 and most women seem to have 5+ children.
So I submit that if we want to increase the happiness score in the USA, it seems the best way to do so would be to give everyone free food, free household supplies, free apartments, free cars and dole out a monthly stipend of cash. Then, being happy, they will pop out many more babies.
They are in survival mode , screwing and breeding like crazy ! The same happened, I read somewhere, in London during WW2 when Germans dropped their deadly V missiles on the City on a almost daily basis, outright orgies took place, although mostly among the economically well off people, that s what I read anyway….It makes sense though, doesn it ?
Without assets falling in price (houses, stocks, bonds) the American Dream is unreachable for far too many. The poll is basically telling us that water freezes at 32F. The generation that has taken advantage of every financial opportunity to create, avoid taxation, print into existence, invest at low interest rates for the bulk of their lives, have access to the last of the defined benefit pensions while also having IRA, 401k, Roth IRA and a Fed that made all of those go up 700% in the last 15 years….well, that generation is generally happy. Surprise! The generation that has come behind has no shot of access to an affordable anything, especially a home. That generation feels hopelessness. Surprise! And not just affordable housing, affordable effing bread, eggs, basic necessities.
These are the key statements in the post and it’s not hard to see if one a) doesn’t have assets or b) has them but sees the absurdity of having them rise beyond any reasonableness and realizes they’ve benefitted far greater than at any time in American financial/economic history:
“The economy is allegedly booming, but only the asset holders have benefitted.”
“Many have concluded they will never be able to afford a house or have kids. Those who have concluded that are likely correct.”
Now, many of those happy 60+ (aka Baby Boomers) might say, “yeah, well I’ll be passing these assets to my children”. The recipients don’t want to wait for ill-gotten or easily-gotten wealth at their own age of 60, they just want a shot at living while they are young because living is for the young. How many Baby Boomers are gonna be unhappy if we, say, went back to home or stock prices of, say, 2012 or 2016? I suspect they would be less happy but still generally happy whereas the younger cohort would immediately see relief.
How willing are we to let asset prices fall to any meaningful degree before the greedsters demand moar fiat grift?
Let’s take the damn medicine now or ain’t none of us gonna be happy.
Under 30 Israel is #2. What a bs
They’re in the army now. They’re not earning shekels.
Serious Question, How come no African country in the Top 25? what would most people say that is most important thing that your country needs for its people to be Happy? Freedom? Good paying Job. Ability to own your Home? Wal-mart.
Africans are at maximum diversity.
“How come no African country in the Top 25”
They’ve been too poor to fund a propaganda ministry continuously for 50+ years.
All that ANY such silly exercises in childish papermill nonsensery reflect; are countries’ relative ability to successfully indoctrinate their respective captive indoctrinati.
So in other words , you don’t know.
Yes I do: They haven’t devoted enough resources to propaganda over the past 50 years, as compared to those who “beat” them at this particular children’s game
40 years of Republican trickle down and a $50 Trillion extraction of wealth from working class while we gutted Unions, killed off defined benefit pensions, and installed a right wing SC which has legalized BRIBERY of politicians and there is another case next month to further legalize political BRIBERY. What’s to be unhappy about?
Why not leave the political party out of the equation since I am pretty sure my math is right here: since 1982 we’ve had 20 years of Democrat Administrations and 22 years of Republican Administrations, right? (Clinton 8, Obama 8, Biden 4 vs Reagan 6, Bush 4, GW Bush 8, Trump 4)
Mish writes a LOT of blog posts. The trickling down or up or sideways ain’t where the money is coming from or going to. Debt-financed spending has outpaced population 15:1 over many decades at the municipal, state and federal level. There is no amount of taxation or confiscation that can fill the massive spending we’ve pulled forward.
Eventually spending using the futures’ dollars hits home when those future people are born, above ground and reach the age of 30 to say, “wait just a minute here, you mean i’m in this hole because no one ever asked if we could actually afford to….”
Sure, argue over whether tax cuts were one of those things to afford. Argue over Iraq. Argue over increases in entitlements or benefits or military or health care. But, no one stopped the government monetary spigot from outpacing population or economic growth.
Much of the rise in asset prices is due to things you’ve said, it’s been a cocked-hat for quite some time. Democrats, who will try to convince you they are looking out for you, have been aiding and abetting themselves.
And let’s focus on what you also said: installed a SC that legalized bribery of politicians. I am on your side here that corporations are not people for political contribution’s (or taxations’) sake but the
Democrats are right there feeding at the trough. Keep in mind that the “right wing SC” that ruled 5-4 in the case you’re referencing ruled that the Affordable Care Act was good to go too so that court wasn’t all that “right wing” now was it?
I could argue that public unions (federal government, most state and municipal workers) are the very definition of extortionists–you give us money, which Mish wrote about in a recent blog that government workers’ wages are massively ahead of the private sector, and we’ll vote for you. It’s a direct conflict of interest. So not all unions are good. In fact even in cases where blue collar workers are unionized they might be paid a prevailing wage which is taxpayers getting worked over by a virtue-signalling (vote buying) government yet again, overpaying in the name of vote buying. So take caution that there is something more noble in the blue method of vote acquisition as they put us in a financial hole.
Take a quick peek at how the vote went down in 2020 in DC, Fairfax, Arlington, etc voted no lower than 85-15 blue-to-red. Government workers, of which there are millions, have no problem with wealth trickling to them.
Cocked hat indeed.
The U.S. won’t be happy until they remove government from out of their lives and invite Jesus back in.
Like the removal of the government in Haiti? That has certainly made people happier there! [lol]
As to Jesus, he is dead and ain’t coming back.
A good 25% of the US youth are have third world values, are uneducated, ill equipped, and unmotivated to achieve the prosperity they covet.
Look at the top 11 nations. A bunch of “commie utopias” and Israel, according to the vituperative pundits on the right. Why is it so bad to take care of people and ensure a basic standard of living is met? That’s what we are NOT doing in the US, and it shows. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the poor tend to vote GOP who harms them the most financially. You can’t make this stuff up. Now the right can get back to fearmongering about how Elilzabeth Warren (who barely matters any more) is the big bad wolf coming to seize all your assets and ensure we descend into a commie hellhole. Just like you all say Commiefornia for the Golden State. Lighten up, you’ll be happier.
Who let the blue haired nutbag in?
I see you want to sanitize your world to only include opinions that match your own. Too bad for your intellect.
As an ex Naval officer I can testify that the Navy has a brutal selection process to determine if an individual is capable to being the captain of a ship, as the captain decides and is responsible for the well being and morale of the ship. So this.
Sworn congressional testimony from a Biden crime family ex partner.
link to twitter.com
Why, if you are a big billionaire donor you get to pay very little taxes and get away with all sorts of regulation. What is to be unhappy about. What I fail to understand is how people really think Trump will make things so much better, given that he will give corporations to fire at will with fewer employee protections.
Easy. Trump has appealed to his base’s LCD, their anger and hatred. He is playing them like the fools they are. They’ll dutifully vote against their interest. Luckily for the USA, it is unlikely there are enough suckers to fall for Trump’s con again this November.
Andy votes democrat and wears a dress.
Lots of men wear dresses, get used to insulting the practice to make yourself more secure in your manhood, it will be increasingly necessary.
“What I fail to understand is how people really think Trump will make things so much better,…”
Noone does.
Believing he will, in and of itself preclude any ability to think at all.
Correct.
What they are voting for Trump for is to prevent Biden from making things worse.
Except Trump and the Christian Nationalists will make things worse than Biden
Which is why half the people in left wing New York City want to move.
he won’t make things better. he will make them worse although it will be the Christian Nationalists not Trump who will be calling the shots.
Trump is just the salesman. What you are going to get for voting him as President is the Christian Nationalists. They are ruthless, just like all the bible thumpers. Read Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation website. But as has been stated, Trump voters are simply zombies and that is why he plays to their stupidity. They are so easy to fool. Trump is going to get immunity against prosecution for the President passed by the SCOTUS before he becomes President. This will enable him to become a dictator for as long as he likes. I guess he will form a dynasty. There will be no getting him or his sons or daughter out of office unless America dies because of the 6th Extinction, which is very likely within the next 20 years or less.