The chart that shows how happy you are, just as long as you’re old enough

The Age

Now for the bad news: despite all our advantages, Australia’s average life satisfaction score has declined over the past decade, and the trend started before the pandemic. On the report’s measure, happiness in Australia last peaked in 2013.

The downward trend has been driven by gloomier young people. Between 2010 and 2023 the decline in average life satisfaction scores among Australians aged under-30 was nearly double that of older age groups. While over-60s in Australia were ranked 9th in the world for happiness this year, that fell to 19th for under-30s. Happiness among younger age cohorts also fell markedly in the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.