Young adults drag US down to 23rd in world happiness rankings, report shows

SEATTLE — There’s new data backing up a troubling trend. Young people are increasingly unhappy. So much so that they pulled the entire country down in a recent report on happiness.

Each year, Gallup surveys thousands of people around the world to measure wellbeing in the World Happiness Report. In the most recent report, the U.S. fell to the 23rd happiest nation.

“The United States, for the first time, showed that young adults were less happy than older adults,” said Janet Ray, managing editor of world news at Gallup. “We’ve been looking at this for almost 20 years now, studying life evaluations around the world, across all these different countries.”

“It’s become normal for people our age to see people that suffer from not finding happiness. You hear about it every day. In class, out of class,” said 20-year-old University of Washington student Mais, who didn’t want to give her last name.

Another student, 22-year-old Austin Yung, said this about whether he considers himself a happy person: “Honestly, on the outside yes, but inside not too much.”

That’s a feeling echoed in this year’s World Happiness Report.

“We used to see that young people under the age of 30 were just about as happy as those 60 and older,” Ray said. “So, kind of a U-shape in terms of the happiness curve. But what we see now is that those young people are actually the least happy of all the different age groups that we look at.”

The survey doesn’t ask people why they rate their happiness a certain way, but it does look at metrics like loneliness and social interactions. Young people reported feeling less socially supported and lonelier than any other age group.

“I think feeling lonely is a really big factor,” said 19-year-old Esha Sharma. “Like in the pandemic and after graduation, finding people to surround yourself with and true friendships and maintaining that.”

Seattle Children’s hospital Mental Health Resource Hub offered the following tips for teens:

• Aim for 8 to 10 hours of sleep, with no screens before bed
• Get exercise
• Make social connections with friends and family
• Move towards your goals, even in small steps
• And set time aside to simply have fun

“Life is never easy,” Yung said. “I think it’s not supposed to be. But I think that’s what builds character. I think everyone needs to struggle a little bit to grow.”