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May 17, 2024 Graphics/Design:

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Countries with the Biggest Happiness Gaps Between Generations

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“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” — Tom Bodett

Measuring happiness is tricky business, more so when taking into account how different regions, cultures, and faiths define it. Nevertheless, the World Happiness Report attempts to distill being happy into a single score out of 10, and then ranks countries by their average score.

We’ve visualized the high-level findings from the latest happiness report in this series of maps. However, the report also dives deeper into other significant trends in the data, such as a growing disparity in happiness between age groups within countries themselves.

In the chart above, we list countries by the biggest gaps in happiness ranks between young adults (30) and older adults (60+). A higher number indicates a larger gap, and that the youth are far unhappier than their older counterparts.

Where are Youth Unhappier than Older Adults?

Mauritius ranks first on this list, with a massive 57 place gap between older adult and youth happiness. The 1.26 million-inhabited island nation briefly reached high income status in 2020, but the pandemic hit hard, hurting its key tourism sector, and affecting jobs.

The country’s youth unemployment rate spiked to close to 25% that year, but has since been on the decline. Like residents on many similarly-populated islands, the younger demographic often moves abroad in search of more opportunities.

RankCountryYouth Happiness RankOlder Adult
Happiness RankHappiness Gap 1🇲🇺 Mauritius852857 2🇺🇸 U.S.621052 3🇨🇦 Canada58850 4🇺🇿 Uzbekistan712249 5🇨🇳 China793049 6🇯🇵 Japan733637 7🇲🇳 Mongolia865333 8🇩🇿 Algeria936231 9🇱🇾 Libya805030 10🇸🇬 Singapore542628 11🇰🇿 Kazakhstan694227 12🇵🇭 Philippines704327 13🇱🇦 Laos1047727 14🇩🇪 Germany472126 15🇪🇸 Spain552926 16🇲🇹 Malta573126 17🇧🇭 Bahrain775126 18🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan815526 19🇲🇷 Mauritania1199326