The United States has the problem of happiness.
In the annual arrangement of the World Happiness Report for the happiest countries, the United States decreased to No. 24, its lowest position in the 13 -year list. Last year, the United States came out from the top 20 for the first time. The list is collected from an analysis of how a representative sample of the population of more than 140 countries evaluates the quality of their lives.
“This gradual decrease in well -being in the United States is, if you start searching for it, especially driven by people under 30 years old,” tells Jean Edanel de Neve, a professor of economics at Oxford University, the leader of the Welfare Research Center and the editor of the Global Happiness Report, luck. “Satisfaction with life decreased for young people in the United States.”
If you are only to evaluate those under the age of 30, the United States will not rank first in the best 60 countries, as the report was found. This is the same reason behind the dramatic decline of the United States last year from No. 15 to No. 23. But the continuous decline is related, the researchers note.
“It is really frustrated by seeing this, and it is completely associated with the fact that the welfare of young people in America is the one that falls on a shelf, which leads to a large decrease in classifications,” says De Neve.
The United States classification is also explained by the greatest inequality compared to the northern European countries, such as Finland (No. 1), Denmark (No. 2) and Iceland (No. 3).
“In these Scandinavian countries the north, the tidal height raises all boats, and therefore the levels of economic inequality are much lower, and this is reflected in well -being as well,” says De Neve. In Finland, most people will reside [their happiness] Fast or eight, while if you look at the distribution of welfare in the United States, there are a lot of twenty there, but there are a lot of things as well. “
The report focused more this year on the strength of the country’s social support and the amount of people trusting others-a major indication of personal well-being. In 2023, nearly one of every five youth in the United States said they had no one who can rely on for support. In the United States, the number of people who eat on their own increased by 53 % since 2003 (the number of joint meals during the week was a new data point in this year’s report, which is linked to positive well -being, according to De Neve).
“You see an extraordinary increase in eating alone over the past two decades in the United States,” he says. “It is the fact that people are increasingly, isolating them, political thinking, and theories about life and society, their test is no longer by others … in our echo rooms, we develop these concepts that others will not trust, and we agree on that, and we lack immigrants, all this kind of things. As a result, we start to imagine these things.
The researchers say they were able to capture confidence by asking whether people believe that someone would return to a lost wallet. Compared to the northern countries, people in the United States were more likely to have the kindness of others.
“It is necessary for strangers to be reliable, to exceed the call of duty, be nice and try to return it to the legitimate owner, or topple him with the police, which means that you need to trust the police,” says De Neve. “This is the only item of the wallet drop is very strong.”
To learn more about happiness:
- The researchers have followed more than 700 people since 1938 to find the keys to happiness. This is what they discovered
- The Americans are evidence that money cannot buy happiness, and a new report shows
- You can learn to be happier. This chapter can teach you how in only one week
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
