Responses from more than 10 million U.S. adults (1993–2024), a longitudinal sample of 40,000 UK households, and two million Global Minds questionnaires across 44 countries were analyzed. Unhappiness now begins at high levels in early life and declines throughout adulthood, removing the prior midlife hump and producing a pattern consistent with rising quarter-life crises. The pattern appears across diverse national contexts. Contributors cited include the pandemic, the housing crisis, and especially widespread smartphone use, which reduces free time and displaces beneficial activities. In developing countries, people without internet access did not show similarly poor mental health.
The unhappiness curve is disappearing but this isn't good news. Until now, life satisfaction had the shape of a smile. It started high in youth, sank in middle age in what has become known as the midlife crisis and then rebounded. Unhappiness, on the other hand, used to be shaped like a hump, or an inverted smile. However, a comprehensive study published on August 27 in the scientific journal PLOS One shows how this curve has eroded to the point of almost disappearing.
It's not that the midlife crisis has subsided, but rather that we've begun to see something we could easily define as a quarter-life crisis. Unhappiness now starts at a high level at very early ages and tends to decline throughout life. The study was conducted with responses from more than 10 million adults in the United States (they did so between 1993 and 2024), with a longitudinal analysis involving 40,000 households in the United Kingdom.
There were also two million questionnaires administered by the Global Minds Project in 44 countries. Lots of data, many countries but one unequivocal conclusion. The truth is, we were surprised that the results were so [universal], acknowledges David G. Blanchflower, an economist at Dartmouth College and the study's lead author. The researchers didn't ask about the reasons for this, but they point to the consequences of the pandemic, the housing crisis and above all the widespread use of smartphones.
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