Is middle age the most miserable time of all?

A study using data from around 80 countries has found happiness is greatest in youth and old age with depression being most common among men and women in their forties.

“In a remarkably regular way throughout the world people slide down a U-shaped level of happiness and mental health throughout their lives,” says researcher Professor Andrew Oswald at Warwick University in the UK.

“Some people suffer more than others but in our data the average effect is large.”

The study is to be published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

Professors Oswald and David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College in the US analysed data on depression, anxiety levels and general mental health and wellbeing taken from some two million people in countries ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe.

“For the average persons in the modern world, the dip in mental health and happiness comes on slowly, not suddenly in a single year,” Professor Oswald says.

“It happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children,” he says. “Nobody knows why we see this consistency.”

One possibility may be that people realise they won’t achieve many of their aspirations at middle age, the researchers say.

But the good news is that if people make it to aged 70 and are still physically fit, they are on average as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year old.

But Australian happiness researcher, Professor Bob Cummins of Deakin University in Melbourne says that being depressed in your middle age is not necessarily normal.

He says while the study by Professors Oswald and Blanchflower is impressive in its size, pooling data from so many different countries would have made it difficult to identify factors that influence depression in middle age.

Professor Cummins says Australian research shows a U-shape happiness curve only applies to people who do not have good relationships or enough money.

He says research has found a gross income of A$100,000 for a household of four helps to provide a good buffer against unhappiness.
Professor Cummins says supportive relationships are particularly important when people are living on low income.