For decades, researchers found that happiness follows a U-shaped curve - high in youth, lowest in your 40s and 50s, then rising again. Most of us are in that middle dip right now. - Silicon Canals

"For decades, economists and psychologists have been studying happiness across the lifespan, and a striking pattern keeps emerging. Researchers conclude that individuals become less happy as they age from their teens into their 40s, after which they recover and experience increasing happiness into old age."

"Studying 132 countries around the world, labor economist David Blanchflower found that people's happiness rose and fell in a U-shaped curve, hitting a low around the ages of 47 and 49. This pattern has become known as the happiness U-curve, or the U-bend of life."

"Using country-level data, researchers have identified U-shapes in age in 145 advanced and developing countries, including 138 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations. When a finding shows up that consistently, from Germany to Thailand to sub-Saharan Africa, it's worth taking seriously."

"The size of the dip in well-being in midlife is sometimes small but is equivalent in magnitude to the effects of unemployment or divorce."

Research indicates that happiness follows a U-shaped curve throughout life, with individuals experiencing decreased happiness from their teens into their 40s. This low point typically occurs around ages 47 to 49, after which happiness begins to rise again into old age. Studies conducted across 132 countries confirm this pattern, showing that the midlife dip in well-being can be significant, comparable to the effects of unemployment or divorce. This phenomenon is consistent across various cultures and income levels.

Read at Silicon Canals