---
title: Feeling Good and Happy- Your 20s Are Now Your Unhappiest Decade As Since 2020 Life Satisfaction Rise With Age
description: The traditional midlife crisis has disappeared. New research tracking western countries shows that since 2020 life satisfaction rise with age and young adults now report the highest levels of despair, with women particularly affected.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-02-06T16:27:54.000Z
updated: 2026-10-27T10:31:13.469Z
canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/feeling-good-and-happy-your-20s-are-now-your-unhappiest-decade-as-since-2020-life-satisfactio
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/jl0bid7vloq.jpg
categories: Feeling Good and Happy
content_type: Analysis
region: United States
publication: Rich Woman Magazine
---

The midlife crisis as we knew it no longer exists. Data from the [National Bureau of Economic Research](https://www.nber.org/papers/w33490) analysing more than 400,000 adults annually shows the familiar U-curve of happiness—declining until middle age, then rebounding—has inverted. Young adults now occupy the space where midlife malaise used to be.

At age 22, despair rates nearly doubled between the pre-2020 period and 2020-23, rising from 4.8% to 7.9% according to the [Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System](https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/index.html). Meanwhile, despair levels among people over 45 remained largely unchanged. The U-shape disappeared entirely, replaced by a steady decline in unhappiness as people age.

The research, [published by economists Jean Twenge](https://www.nber.org/papers/w33490) of San Diego State University and David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College in February 2025, defines despair as reporting 30 consecutive days of poor mental health. Their analysis examined six English-speaking countries—Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the US—alongside data from 44 nations via the Global Minds project spanning 2020 to 2025.

“I had failed to spot something,” Blanchflower wrote in the [NBER Reporter](https://www.nber.org/reporter/2025number1/global-decline-mental-health-young). “The upward trend in despair of the prime age group had stopped around 2017, and from around 2013 or so the rates of despair for the young rose.”

## When the shift began

The decline in youth happiness started between 2012 and 2013. This timing coincides precisely with widespread smartphone adoption and [social media mainstreaming](https://richwoman.co/article/younger-generations-childfree-life). In-person social interaction—established as vital for mental health—declined more sharply among young adults than older generations, potentially replaced by digital communication that offers connection without the same protective effects.

Economic factors play a role, though not the one you might expect. Real wages for young workers have actually risen over the past decade. In the US, youth wages increased from $487 weekly in 2015 to $772 in 2024, while the ratio of youth to adult wages improved from 56.6% to 60.9%. Yet despite this economic progress, mental health deteriorated.

What has risen dramatically are housing costs, healthcare expenses, and student debt—the relative prices that shape daily financial stress rather than absolute wage figures. Underemployment has also increased markedly since the Great Recession, meaning young workers with jobs still face fewer hours than they need or want.

## The gender divide

Women bear a disproportionate burden. In the 2023-24 [BRFSS data](https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/annual_data/annual_data.htm), 7.5% of women reported despair compared to 5.8% of men. Among adolescents aged 12-19, the [CDC found 26.5% of girls](https://www.aecf.org/blog/youth-mental-health-statistics) showed depressive symptoms versus 12.2% of boys. [Gallup’s 2023 survey](https://news.gallup.com/poll/505745/depression-rates-reach-new-highs.aspx) revealed 36.7% of women have been diagnosed with depression at some point, compared to 20.4% of men.

The gender gap has widened, possibly intensified by pandemic-related stresses affecting women disproportionately. Young women also report higher daily experiences of sadness, worry, pain, and stress than men, though paradoxically both genders rate their overall life satisfaction similarly—29% of women and 27% of men worldwide met Gallup’s criteria for “thriving” in 2024, according to the [State of the World’s Emotional Health report](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/where-women-govern/202510/new-research-links-happiness-and-peace).

College students show particularly stark increases. Depression among US students rose from 17% in 2013 to 41% in 2020-21, according to the [Healthy Minds Survey](https://healthymindsnetwork.org/). Female students report stronger emotional connections with support networks but experience added pressure from academic demands and traditional gender expectations, while male students face cultural expectations around masculinity that discourage sharing emotions.

## Beyond smartphones

The smartphone explanation feels intuitive but incomplete. Youth mental health decline appears globally even in regions with lower internet penetration. [Blanchflower’s December 2024 NBER study](https://www.nber.org/papers/w33280) on African countries found about half the continent’s population has never used the internet, yet those who have show higher rates of mental health problems. “The absence of the internet might help explain why the mental health of young Africans has been declining less than elsewhere,” the study noted. “However, there are dangers on the horizon as the sales of smartphones explode.”

A [2022-23 Harvard Graduate School of Education survey](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/news/23/10/mental-health-challenges-young-adults-illuminated-new-report) of young adults aged 18-25 identified [meaning and purpose as critical factors](https://richwoman.co/article/young-adults-feel-lost-purpose). Nearly three in five (58%) reported lacking “meaning or purpose” in their lives during the previous month. Half said not knowing what to do with their lives negatively affected their mental health. Financial worries impacted 56%, achievement pressure 51%, and 45% reported a general sense that things are falling apart.

Relationship deficits compound the problem. Forty-four percent of young adults reported not mattering to others, and 34% experienced loneliness. These figures suggest isolation operates on multiple levels—not just physical separation but a deeper sense of disconnection from purpose, direction, and community.

## Work offers less protection

Recent unpublished research from Blanchflower shows the protective effect of employment on mental health has weakened for young people. While young workers still report better mental health than those unemployed or unable to work, the gap has been closing as despair among young employees rises. This suggests structural changes beyond individual circumstances. When Blanchflower examined young workers specifically, ruling out wage dissatisfaction and unemployment, he [told Fortune](https://allwork.space/2025/09/economists-sound-alarm-on-gen-zs-rising-work-related-despair/) the data points to a conclusion that young workers are essentially saying “this job sucks.”

The Conference Board’s 2025 job satisfaction data shows overall satisfaction among US workers at 62.7%—the highest since tracking began in 1987—yet this aggregate figure masks what happens when broken down by age. Older workers drive these high satisfaction rates. Younger workers inhabit a different reality.

## Where we are now

The traditional pattern held for decades. Research documented the U-curve in over 600 published papers using data from 145 countries, appearing consistently in both developing and developed nations. The midlife peak in despair aligned with [Anne Case and Angus Deaton’s research](https://www.nber.org/papers/w29241) on “deaths of despair”—suicide, drug overdoses, and cirrhosis concentrated among prime-aged adults without college degrees. In 2023, the CDC reported overdose death rates peaked at 60.8 per 100,000 for ages 35-44, then declined.

The morbidity data matched the mortality data. Until it didn’t.

Between 2020 and 2024, every major US health survey—the [National Health Interview Survey](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/index.htm), the [National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm), the [National Survey on Drug Use and Health](https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey-drug-use-and-health), the American National Election Studies, the US Household Pulse Surveys, the Healthy Minds Study, and the [Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System](https://www.cdc.gov/yrbs/)—documented the same shift. The despair that once peaked in midlife now peaks in youth.

The [2025 World Happiness Report](https://worldhappiness.report/) confirmed this pattern extends beyond English-speaking countries. While the US dropped from the top 20 for the first time, Americans under 30 ranked 62nd for happiness among 143 countries surveyed. The report identified caring and sharing—benevolent acts like donating, volunteering, and helping strangers—as protective factors. These behaviours surged during the COVID-19 pandemic but have since declined, though they remain 10% higher than 2017-19 levels.

## In case you were wondering…

**Q: What defines ‘despair’ in this research?**
The  asks: “Now thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?” Those who answer 30—reporting every single day as a bad mental health day—are classified as being in despair. Between 1993 and 2014, 4.8% of respondents fell into this category. By 2023-24, that figure rose to 6.7%. The median and mode responses are zero, meaning most people report no bad mental health days, which makes the increase in those reporting 30 consecutive days particularly significant.

**Q: Does this pattern appear only in the US?**
No. The  pooling 44 countries from 2020-2025 confirms ill-being now decreases with age globally rather than following the traditional hump shape. The pattern appears across English-speaking countries, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa, though with varying intensities.  on African nations, the Middle East, and Latin America all document similar trends. The timeline differs slightly by region—some areas began seeing changes a few years earlier or later than 2012-13—but the overall direction remains consistent.

**Q: Why did researchers miss this shift initially?**
Blanchflower credits psychologist Jean Twenge for alerting him to the pattern during a . “Between 2011 and 2021 the number of teens and young adults with clinical depression had more than doubled,” the show reported. Blanchflower had been analysing BRFSS data for years, focusing on prime-age despair (35-44 year-olds). He noted the upward trend in that group but failed to track the even steeper rise among younger ages until Twenge pointed it out. The data had been there all along. Researchers simply weren’t looking in that direction because the midlife crisis framework shaped expectations about where to find despair.

**Q: Can employment protect young people’s mental health?**
Employment still correlates with better mental health than unemployment, but that protective effect has weakened substantially for young workers. Blanchflower’s analysis shows despair among young employees has been rising even as employment rates and real wages improve. After controlling for wages and employment status, the data suggests dissatisfaction stems from the nature and conditions of work itself rather than lack of work or inadequate pay. The traditional assumption that a job provides structure, purpose, and social connection appears less reliable for this generation. Whether that reflects changes in how work is structured, what young people expect from employment, or both remains unclear.

**Q: What about social media—is it the main cause?**
The timeline correlation is striking: youth mental health began declining around 2012-13, exactly when smartphone use became ubiquitous and social media platforms reached critical mass. Face-to-face interaction declined more among young adults than older age groups. However, treating social media as the sole cause oversimplifies. Youth mental health is declining even in regions with lower internet access, suggesting broader forces at work. Financial pressures from housing costs and student debt, changing employment conditions, declining social cohesion, climate anxiety, and political polarization all compound the problem. Social media likely functions as an amplifier—intensifying negative comparisons, reducing in-person connection, and accelerating information flow—rather than operating as a singular cause.

**Q: Are there any positive indicators?**
Generation Z demonstrates greater emotional awareness and openness about mental health than any previous generation. This reduced stigma means more young people seek help and support, though it also means higher reported rates that may partly reflect better recognition rather than purely worsening conditions. The Harvard research found young adults possess significant strengths, including adaptability, creativity, and social consciousness. Post-COVID, benevolent behaviours like helping strangers remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. Young people are also driving conversations about mental health policy, workplace reforms, and community support systems. The challenge lies not in young people’s capacity for resilience but in the structural conditions they’re navigating—conditions that older generations did not face at the same intensity during their own young adulthood.