For decades, economists and psychologists have described well-being as following a predictable life pattern: a cheerful start in youth, a downturn in midlife, and a rebound in older age. This “U-shape of happiness” has been observed hundreds of times across countries and cultures. But new global research suggests the familiar curve may be flattening — and not because middle age has become easier.
A sweeping analysis of large-scale datasets from nearly 50 countries finds that mental health no longer bottoms out in midlife. Instead, distress is now highest among young people and declines almost steadily with age, a reversal driven by a sharp deterioration in wellbeing among the under-25s.
In the United States, researchers drew on three decades of CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, which surveys roughly 400,000 adults annually. The share of Americans reporting poor mental health every day for the past month nearly doubled between 1993 and 2023. Among people under 25, the rate surged from 2.9% to 8%.
Similar patterns emerged in the United Kingdom. Data from the Household Longitudinal Survey and Annual Population Survey show the percentage of young men classified as “in despair” nearly tripled from 2009 to 2021, while the rate for young women soared from 4.4% to 12.7%. Anxiety scores climbed sharply as well, with the steepest increases among the youngest respondents.
The same trend extends well beyond English-speaking countries. Using Global Minds Project data covering more than 1.7 million people in 44 countries between 2020 and 2025, researchers found mental distress declining almost linearly with age. Nearly half of people under 25 — 48% — were considered at risk of poor mental health, far outpacing older adults. In every country, young women reported worse outcomes than young men.
Across all datasets, the traditional midlife “hump” in unhappiness has vanished. The apparent improvement in middle and older adulthood does not reflect rising wellbeing in those groups but rather extraordinary declines in mental health among the young.
Experts caution against attributing the shift solely to the COVID-19 pandemic; the data show that long before 2020, mental health among younger generations was already weakening. Researchers point instead to compounding pressures — the 2008 financial crisis, unstable job markets, social media, ongoing discrimination, and chronically underfunded mental health services.
The findings raise urgent questions about whether the long-held belief that well-being naturally improves with age will continue to hold true. If distress among young people keeps rising, the very idea of a midlife crisis may soon be outdated — replaced by a new and troubling reality in which the greatest struggles occur much earlier in life, and on a global scale.
Source: British Psychological Society