When the data for the 13 nations is pooled, life satisfaction has been growing noticeably faster in the under-30 age group for 11 of the countries. In Europe about 20 percent of those in the youngest group, under age 20, were very satisfied in the early 1973 to 1975 period. What does offer a clue to these findings is the fact that most of the increase in young people's well-being is to be found in the unmarried group. It suggests that the ultimate answer is somehow connected to the role of family life and personal freedom. Happiness and life satisfaction first fall and then rise over one's lifetime, reaching their minimum at age 30, and reportedly highest among women, whites, married people, the highly educated, and those with high incomes.
Happiness is especially low among the unemployed, the authors find.