Extensive analysis of 152 countries uncovers societal determinants of happiness

“If you’re looking for something that’s special about the countries where youth unhappiness is rising, they’re mostly Western developed countries,” says John Helliwell, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia and a co-author of the World Happiness Report. “And for the most part, they are countries that speak English.”

“Between 2006 and 2023, happiness among Americans under 30 in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand declined significantly [and] also declined in Western Europe,” the report says. But here’s the catch: In the rest of the world, under-30 happiness mostly increased in this period. “Happiness at every age has risen sharply in Central and Easter

Plusieurs études75 ont montré que la consommation expliquait à elle seule très peu de différences de bonheur entre individus (moins de 5 %). Dès les années 1970, l’économiste américain Richard Easterlin76 avait en effet démontré combien le bonheur n’était pas corrélé à la croissance du produit intérieur brut (PIB). À partir d’enquêtes sur le lien e

But the most important finding of all is that happiness does not really depend on objective conditions of either wealth, health or even community. Rather, it depends on the correlation between objective conditions and subjective expectations.