Who is happier, the young or the old?

The European Social Survey (ESS) asks people both how happy they are and how satisfied they are with their lives, using scales from 0 to 10, with 0 representing "extremely unhappy" or "extremely dissatisfied" and 10 representing, obviously, "extremely happy" or "extremely satisfied". There is a striking geographical pattern in the responses provided by Europeans. In general, in Southern, Central and Eastern European countries, people aged 15–24 report substantially higher satisfaction than those aged 65 and over. Across much of Northern and Western Europe, however, the opposite is true.

Take the case of Bulgaria. There, in the latest ESS round, average life satisfaction among 15–24-year-olds is about 1.6 points higher than among those aged 65 and over. Remember this is on a 0 to 10 scale, so the difference is actually relevant. The corresponding gaps are about 1.3 points in Slovakia, 1 point in Italy, and 0.7 points in Portugal. But in Switzerland, it's the opposite: older respondents are about 0.8 points more satisfied with their lives than the youngest. In Sweden, Iceland, or the UK we find a similar pattern.

The same divide becomes even clearer when people are asked simply how happy they are. Young people score almost two points higher than the oldest group in Slovakia or Bulgaria, and about one point higher in Greece, Italy, or Portugal. In contrast, those aged 65 and over in Iceland are about one point happier than 15–24-year-olds, with smaller but similar differences in other Northern European countries.

Happiness and life satisfaction have often been described as following a U-shape: relatively high when people are young, declining towards middle age, and recovering later in life. But the above results complicate this story somewhat. Recent research finds that the U-shape has largely disappeared in Europe. Instead, while in many Northern countries life satisfaction now tends to increase with age, in Southern Europe it tends to decline as people get older.

Why?

It is not entirely clear. One part of the answer may have to do with the recent deterioration in young people's mental well-being relative to older age groups in many of the most economically developed countries. Another part of the answer may be related to improvements in the labour market situation among young adults in several of the least affluent European nations. Older people in Central and Eastern also seem to experience lower levels of quality of life in comparison with young adults, reversing the Northern European pattern. But several pieces of this puzzle are still missing. In any case, these comparisons require an important caveat: the ESS does not follow the same people as they age; instead, each round surveys a new cross-section of the population. Therefore differences between 20- and 70-year-olds may reflect generational differences and particular historical circumstanced experienced by the different cohorts.