The Happiest Age
What is your age? And, over the course of your life (past, present, and future), at which age do you think you were/are/will be the happiest? Can you answer the second question? I can’t, but I was curious what people might say. Over the last two weeks, I used Amazon’s crowdsourcing service to ask 672 people these two questions. Here are the results:
Each dot is at least one person. If more than one person gave the same answer, the dot is bigger. Click on the graph for a better version, or take a look at the complete dataset.
I don’t know what to do with the graph, but lots of people wrote short comments explaining their choices which I really enjoyed reading. Here are some I liked, each with the age of the author and the age at which he/she expects to be the happiest:
An 18-year-old: 25
Because that’s when i’ll have a stable job, good income and my own house (hopefully).
A 25-year-old: 18
I wish I could stay 18 or ever.
A 33-year-old: 53
Will have met financial freedom and retirement goals.
A 46-year-old: 53
By the time I’m 53, I feel like I will be old enough to truly know myself and young enough to be physically fit.
A 53-year-old: 53
I was diagnosed with cancer around 2.5 years ago, went through the chemo and radiation. I’m finally at a point where I am grateful and happy that it was found in time to do something about it, and not worrying every second that it will come back. Not exactly a near-death experience, but as close as I want to come. Makes you REAL happy to be alive and to try and appreciate even the small things.
A 24-year-old: 40
I have already had a lot of happiness in my life and am very grateful for said happiness but I noticed that as my father ages, he seems to find more and more joy in the smaller things in life. Even in tough times he seems to maintain a more positive attitude - maybe it’s because he’s retired or he’s realized that worrying does’t accomplish much. I hope to achieve his level of wisdom someday and look forward to more happiness and fulfillment later in life.
A 53-year-old: 40
This was the point in my life that I had gotten through college, was married, had children and a career. I spent many hours at my childrens games (football, softball, etc) and and loved every minute if it! Financially, things were getting easier as my husband and I advanced in our careers so we could do more things such as travel and not have to worry so much about being able to afford it. It seemed that the hard work of college and “paying my dues” as I began my career were finally beginning to pay off.
A 21-year-old: 30
At 30, still young but old enough to be really developing my career.
A 30-year-old: 21
Life at my fingertips…
A 26-year-old: 35
I love the family life and independence; by the age mentioned I hope to have less day-to-day worries and more kids, but still be in a really good shape to enjoy it. Plus, I hope to be much more stable professionally.
A 34-year-old: 25
It’s amazing what experience, debt, and growing older can do to your outlook on life. I thought a decade ago I would be happer a decade later, and I am finding out that’s not really the case. I’m not unhappy by any means, but the more responsibilities we accrue in life, the easier it is to rate our happiness by different things.
A 23-year-old: 21
In college - so far it was the best time of my life. Hopefully it won’t be!
A 35-year-old: 21
College years were the best
An 18-year-old: 28
Done with college, can settle down, new job, etc
A 28-year-old: 22
I was a college student then. That were happiest years in my life, because my character shaped and tempered. Though any college assignment felt hard, I can enjoyed the hardship. Sincerely, I dreamed several times about my college years when I slept. I really missed that moment of life.
A 26-year-old: 15
15 was a great year. I was still to young to care and honestly thought the world was at my feet. I spent the school year hanging out with friends and of course school. Summer I spent most of it at my uncles enjoying time with my younger cousins and the cute boy down the street. Ahh… life before a I ever had a job.
Another 26-year-old: 26
As someone who has spent most of her short life daydreaming, I have learned not to waste my time measuring happiness or planning how to create it. I try and make the best of the present time and hope that I continue to do that for the rest of my life. Interesting question!
Yet another 26-year-old: 32
I feel by that time I will have finished grad school and be working in a field that I love. I will be more comfortable with who I am and my place in the world by that time.
A 26-year-old: 30
The day i get married will be the happiest day of my life.
A 41-year-old: 26
I met and married my husband at 26 years old. It was the best time of my life.
A 70-year-old: 30
We had a very happy marriage and two beautiful daughters. Although we are still married, things often got complicated and stressful but never hopeless.
A 23-year-old: 8
Childhood was a time of innocence; no worries, no bills, no thought as to cause and effect… You walk around with your fingers in your nose picking wedgies and thinking about the playground never wondering about world hunger war terrorism or even when companies may go bankrupt and cancel your favorite television show.
A 44-year-old: 25
The age I married my beloved husband and set out on our new life together. We are still together and still very happy. The adventures we share and have shared have brought so much joy to my life.
A 46-year-old: 34
I was happiest when I was single and working at the beginning of my professional career.
A 27-year-old: 45
Having children and watching them grow will give me the greatest joy.
A 38-year-old: 45
at that age most of my kids will be grown and hopefully I will be able to quit my job by then and do some of the things i would like to be able to do in my life
A 29-year-old: 16
I desperately miss the imagined knowledge and unknown ignorance of being in high school
Another 29-year-old: 17
Got married at 16 have 4 kids…so life has been challenging, wouldn’t trade them for anything…but would like to go back and have less responsability even for a little while :)
A 29-year-old: 26
This is the age that I came to the realization that I had finally found what I wanted. Everything just seemed to be coming together.
A 50-year-old: 26
At 26 i had my only child…and i was going to college, met a man of my dreams and felt like i could do it all..then i got involved with my child and man everything i wanted went out the window with in the first year..do i regret it sometimes would i change it not on my life
A 54-year-old: 23
I know for sure that as I age I get unhappier. At this point I’m thinking about how much longer I have as compared to having my whole life in front of me.
A 31-year-old: 50
I said 50 is the age I would be the happiest because it seems like the older I get the happier I am. And I hope that when I’m 50 I will continue to get more happy with each passing year and I hope to still be in great health.
A 44-year-old: 32
I finally had my child after trying for 10 years and my life was complete then.
A 43-year-old: 61
My youngest child will be of age and hopefully off to college \u0026 then I will be free to do what I want with my life.
A 39-year-old: 40
We had always known we wanted to adopt 2 special children and our hearts goal was that it would be by the time I am 40 and my husband 45. Our second and final adoption will be finalized in 2009 and I will be 40 years old.
A 46-year-old: 65
I am looking forward to 65, so I can retire, and actually take some time out to enjoy life.
A 65-year-old: 34
I was well on my way with a career wide open, had purchased my first house and had a great social life. Since then I have been up and down, but never so enthusiastic about life as I was then.
A 53-year-old: 22
We don’t appreciate things at a young age, but as we grow older we always wish we knew then what we know now.
A 22-year-old: 22
Two young daughters make my life the happiest! :)
A 30-year-old: 25
I was earning, was healthy, carefree. Looked as if there is enough time in life
A 62-year-old: 19
I was young, gorgeous, full of life and in love
This last one made me stop and stare at the screen for some time, simultaneously not knowing anything about this person and yet so much.
Update: David Sturman did some statistical analysis of the data that is worth reading.
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hey andreas,
sehr gute Idee, interessante Umfrage.
Hab mir gerade mal die originaldaten angeschaut, da haben ja auch
einige für ein sehr junges Alter gestimmt, was nicht im Graph zu sehen ist. Hast du Extremwerte abgeschnitten?
Ich habe hoffentlich nichts abgeschnitten — das Alter, das als “happiest” gewählt wurde, ist auf der Y-Achse, und dort sind einige Punkte zwischen 0 und 10 Jahren. Teilnehmer gab’s keine, die weniger als 15 Jahre alt waren.
ich honk, jetzt kann ich noch immer keine Diagramme lesen :-/
54 - Happiest age was 17 (I’m still 17 in my heart:)
I am 65 - and have been extremely happy since i died at 18 from being electricuted in an industrial accident. Every second from that time has been like an incredibly delicious dessert after a mediocre meal.
Happiness comes from within and sometimes it takes being born again - and i don’t mean in any religious sense - i mean literally or mentally, to realize it.
[No capslock on my blog, sorry. Converted to lowercase. — Andreas]
I am 23. My happiest age is now.
I am knowing better and better myself, and i am following who i want to be. I passed my first love break and i survived, now i feel happier because i know better who i am.
I’m 18. I love the present, look forward to the future. But as far as genuine happiness, I think I’d go with age 5. Everything was new and your imagination was as distinct as the world around you.
My life keeps getting better and better so while age 38 may be the happiest I’ve ever been (my age now), I look forward to my 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond to be even happier!
Thank you for the website. It’s a fascinating survey. I posted about this on my blog. Based on the data, it seems that before the age of about 27-28 people think their best years are in front of them. After that, people think their best years are behind them. I wonder what this says about “quarter life crises” that are often talked about these days.
Thanks again, and check out my post:
http://dopamachine.blogspot.com
David: Interesting, thanks! I added a link to your post.
The trend you found — that, at a certain point, people think their best year is behind them — is not surprising if one believes two things: First, happiness is not monotonically increasing with age and second, people’s judgments about when they are most happy are correlated with their actual happiness.
A worthwhile extension of this experiment would be to ask people (possibly repeated over years or decades) not only to give their expected happiest age but also to rate their current happiness. This would give us some information on where they are on the optimism vs. realism curve.
Wow, great idea!
People often say that — getting older — memories of their youth are becoming stronger (and maybe better).
I, personally, can report that time rushes by much faster, when you get older. As a kid, a year seemed eternal while now it appears to rush away. Perhaps that is why memories of youth are “stronger”?
Back to your initial question: I am 21 and feel quite happy these days. Of course, I could imagine many uncertainties, suspenses or sorrows put out of the way would make me feel even better. But with decisions into the one or other direction come (irreversible) choices that reduce the possibilities open to me.
I recently read an article (on the Net — perhaps Reuters, 6 months ago), which measured actual happiness of a large number of individuals ( I think it may have been a European study). I can’t recall what metrics were used. Like the individuals in you study, I would have supposed that most individuals would say they were happiest in the time of their physical and sexual acme, yet the study showed twin peaks of happiness (if my memory serves me right), peaking as young adults, then declining into middle age, only to rise again as the population passes age fifty. It continues to rise (surprisingly, to me) as the oldsters continue past age 60.
@Lena: I do not experience the time-rushing-faster-effect with increasing age (even if I’m just 21). Only one difference occures to me: When it is december Christmas is coming much faster than in my childhood :)
Socialpsychological studies indicate that the “general public” shows that old people are just a bit happier than younger people (and furthermore: happiness is not dependent of your gender or your [monetary] wealth [only in 'rich' nations -- in poorer nations monetary wealth _is_ an indicator for happiness]. Whereas happiness is dependent on relationships, being in an individualistic society, being in a society where the individual has many rights and being in a society where the economic differences between individuals are small.)
I will not give an answer to this question. Why should I pick an expected acme of happiness?
I talked with my friend Henk and his father during the time of the abitur examination. Henk’s father said: “Soon you’ll be going to university! This will be the happiest time of your lifes!”.
…very disconcerting statement…imho
childhood period is happiest for everyone . i think so
From the looks of this graph, it seems like everything is downhill after 35 years of age.