Don’t worry be happy-ONS report on happiness for the over 50s Don’t worry be happy Victor Meldrew AKA Keelan Easthope The Office for National Statistics have published their latest happiness review indicating those of us in our 50s Are ‘Most Anxious’ And ‘Least Happy’-(makes me anxious just typing it!) Their study based on 30,000 people suggests that even though the 50s may be a trying time-don’t worry things get happier in your 60s with better news to follow: the report cites the most satisfied are between 70-74. The report entitled At what age is Personal Well-being the highest? (Short story) The report cites ‘Is the relationship between age and personal well-being U-shaped? Considering first the measure of life satisfaction, evidence of a U-shaped curve holds true, but only for those aged 75 and under. For those aged between 16 to 19, the youngest age group presented in this analysis, average ratings of life satisfaction were high. However, after levelling off between the ages of 20 to 34, ratings become progressively lower through middle years, reaching their lowest point among those aged between 45 to 54. Average ratings then begin to increase and peak again for those aged between 65 to 79, returning to a high level similar to that observed in the youngest age group. Average ratings of life satisfaction then begin to decline through the oldest age groups’ Office of National Statistics graphic To compound our woes as I check the Live Science happiest country list we come 44th out of 145 listed (1 to 50 below) Rank Country 1 Panama 53.00% 2 Costa Rica 47.60% 3 Puerto Rico 45.80% 4 Switzerland 39.40% 5 Belize 38.90% 6 Chile 38.70% 7 Denmark 37.00% 8 Guatemala 36.30% 9 Austria 35.60% 10 Mexico 35.60% 11 Uruguay 35.50% 12 Argentina 33.60% 13 Colombia 33.40% 14 Kyrgyzstan 33.40% 15 Brazil 33.20% 16 Norway 32.00% 17 Netherlands 31.90% 18 El Salvador 31.90% 19 Turkmenistan 31.70% 20 Myanmar 31.70% 21 United Arab Emirates 30.80% 22 Israel 30.70% 23 United States 30.50% 24 Canada 30.20% 25 Luxembourg 30.20% 26 Sweden 29.10% 27 Saudi Arabia 28.50% 28 Germany 28.00% 29 New Zealand 27.90% 30 Venezuela 27.70% 31 Bahrain 27.60% 32 Mauritania 27.30% 33 Nicaragua 27.30% 34 Dominican Republic 26.90% 35 Honduras 26.40% 36 Ireland 26.30% 37 Finland 26.20% 38 Bolivia 25.90% 39 Ecuador 25.90% 40 Australia 25.30% 41 Malaysia 24.60% 42 Malta 24.40% 43 Philippines 24.10% 44 United Kingdom 23.50% 45 Kuwait 23.50% 46 Sierra Leone 23.40% 47 Russia 23.00% 48 France 22.80% 49 Northern Cyprus 22.60% 50 Thailand 22.40%
