Happiness over one’s lifetime has been popularly described as looking like a U-shaped curve: The joys of youth are followed by the challenges of our 20s and 30s before an upswing later in life that reaches a peak after retirement.
While that may be true—or not—in wealthier countries such as the United States, it doesn’t apply to low-income, nonindustrialized societies. That is the main finding of a study I led that examined aging in rural, subsistence-oriented communities in 23 countries across the Global South. And our results have implications for global health amid aging populations and growing economic insecurity.
In our study, we found that happiness levels did not consistently follow the U-shaped trajectory commonly observed in industrialized societies. In some cases there was a U-shape. But more often we observed an inverted U-shape, where middle-aged adults reported the highest level of happiness, or no significant age-related trend at all.
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