No More Mid-Life Crisis? People Are More Unhappy At A Younger Age, Shows Research

Mid-life crisis! A term that has scared people for ages isn't that bad for unhappiness, says a recent report. Time has changed as dissatisfaction and unhappiness hump during middle age has now disappeared—as young people are less happy than they used to be, as per recent New Scientist report.

Mid-life is the period of a person's life between approximately 40 and 60 years old.

The report, that cited a research by University College London, shared that the unhappiness hump has been replaced by a gradually descending line as unhappiness decreases with age.

According to the report, things have not changed much for the middle-aged people, but a lot has changed in the lower half of the age distribution.

Not just this data, but according to World Happiness Report 2025, once considered one of the happiest phases of life, young adulthood has taken a troubling turn. "Young adults across the globe face increasing mental health challenges," it added.

World Happiness Report 2025 also added that, young people in North America and Western Europe report the lowest wellbeing among all age groups.

The researchers turned to data from Global Minds, a mental health research project carried out since 2020 on nearly 2 million people in 44 countries, including the US and the UK.

Internet access is seen to be linked with unhappiness amongst younger age groups. As per a research by University College London, this trend was strongest in high-income, English-speaking countries like the UK and US, and weakest in areas of Africa with poor internet access.

In Tanzania, for example, where only 32% of people had internet access in 2022, young people without internet access were significantly happier than those who did have it.

Earlier this month, White House official spearheading America's AI policies, David Sacks highlighted that US is in the midst of a mental health crisis.