FACT: American young people are exceptionally unhappy.

THE NUMBERS: Americans’ “happiness” ranking, relative to 146 other countries, 2023-2025.*

All Americans 23rd
Americans under 30 60th

* World Happiness Survey 2026

WHAT THEY MEAN:

Summary paragraph from the Kennedy School’s grim 2026 poll of Americans under 30:

“For many 18- to 29-year-olds, the cost of living — especially inflation and housing — defines what they see as a true crisis, while trust in government, elections, and national leadership remains strikingly low. … A pervasive sense of threat is defining everyday life for young Americans, and they are increasingly losing faith. Young people have consistently felt unheard; now they feel unheard and actively in crisis.”

K-School pollsters aren’t alone. UN and Oxford U. researchers tasked with assessing “happiness” find the same thing. Their “World Happiness Survey 2026” (whose figures cover the years 2023-2025) ranks Americans “23rd most happy” among the 147 countries in the survey. At face value, a boring and mediocre ranking — but it gains some texture when the researchers separate their responses by age: young Americans placed a dismal 60th in the world. The 2024 WHR, though slightly dated, provides more detail. Boomers seem very contented in their retirement (or in some cases near-retirement), while their “Gen Z” children and “Gen Alpha” grandchildren are unhappy. The intervening “millennials” and “Gen-Xers” are in between:

“Boomers,” over 65 10th
“Gen-X,” 45-59 17th
Overall 23rd
“Millennials,” 30-40 42nd
“Gen-Z,” under 30 62nd

America’s unhappy youth aren’t wholly unique. Similar generation gaps, borrowing a boomer term, show up in most high-income countries, especially though not exclusively English-speaking ones. Canadians, for example, rank 25th for happiness; younger Canadians, though, are a dismal 71st. Much the same in the UK, where Brits in general place 29th, but young Brits only 64th; and while New Zealanders are a cheerful 11th in general, young Kiwis place 54th. Elsewhere, the French rankings are 35th and 65th, Swiss 10th and 44th, and Singaporeans 36th and 69th. So to some extent, youth discontent seems widespread. Three possible explanations, none mutually exclusive:

Technology? The WHR researchers, noting a general decline in young people’s happiness since their survey’s early years, assign a lot of blame to intensive social media use. This view is widely shared, but can’t be the whole story since young people seem happier in some tech-heavy locales. In very-online Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, WHR’s happiness ratings are about the same for young and old. And in Central and Eastern Europe, young people are usually happier than their elders and peers. Croatians rank 70th for happiness overall, but 11th in the 25-and-younger tier, and similar “relative happiness” among young people turns up in Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria, and Ukraine.

Demographics and aging costs? Another explanation, focused on wealthy countries, lies in demographics. Since 2000, the count of Americans 65 and up has nearly doubled from 35 million to 66 million. The under-30 count, meanwhile, is up from 119 million to 126 million — only 7 million in total. Graying is faster still in Europe and Asia. As countries age, well-intentioned and objectively necessary public policies become increasingly powerful engines for shifting income from young to old: Social Security, government pensions, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, etc., must all serve a growing army of older people, while relying on relatively static younger brigades for the finance. This isn’t a problem with an obvious solution — if governments don’t assume health and pension costs, families will have to pick up the cost instead — but it nonetheless places steadily rising financial pressure on the young.

U.S. choices: Specific U.S. peculiarities and decisions amplify all these problems. At local levels, high housing costs and organized NIMBY-ism make it harder for young people to build wealth. At the national level, rapid federal government debt buildup means young people can expect relatively more taxation and fewer services in the future. More immediately, the post-2016 and post-2024 tariff increases, as policies designed to raise goods prices, gnaw away more of a young person’s income than anyone else’s. (Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, young Gen Z-ers spend about 28.8% of their income on physical goods, prime earning-age Gen-X 19.8%, and retirement-age boomers 26.2%.) A blunt comment from newly formed activist group Students for Abundance draws on housing, transit, education, and power costs to conclude that policy seems designed “to make life harder for those starting out and easier for those already at the top.”

In sum, as the fall’s election season approaches, America’s young people aren’t happy. And they aren’t wrong to see a system tilting against them. The K-School poll’s political findings — young Americans sharply opposed to Trumpism, but with little faith that other politicians are likely to make their problems and concerns a priority — are a challenge the political world has yet to answer.

FACT: American young people are exceptionally unhappy.

THE NUMBERS: Americans’ “happiness” ranking, relative to 146 other countries, 2023-2025.*

WHAT THEY MEAN:

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