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HAPPINESS

Happiness is an old Dane

The elderly in Denmark are happier than both their European counterparts and their younger countrymen. The Local spoke to the head of the Happiness Research Institute to find out why.

Published: 19 March 2015 14:14 CET
Happiness is an old Dane
Skål to being Danish! Photo: Colourbox
With Friday marking the International Day of Happiness, EU statistics agency has released fresh stats showing just how satisfied Europeans are with their lives. 
 
It probably comes as little surprise that Denmark, which has consistently topped happiness lists for decades now, came out on top in the new survey. 
 
 
The Eurostat study asked people across the EU to rate their life satisfaction on a scale of zero to ten, with zero indicating “not satisfied at all” and ten meaning “fully satisfied”. 
 
Danes across all age groups gave an average answer of 8.0, which was good enough to put  Denmark in a four-way tie for first place with Sweden, Finland and Switzerland.
Interestingly, while the study found that throughout the EU young people tend to be more satisfied with life than elderly respondents, that trend is reversed in Denmark. 
 
Danes aged 65-74 are the most satisfied in all of Europe, with a score of 8.6. Danes 75 and over reported an average life satisfaction of 8.4, tying elderly Swiss for the top spot. 
 
 
The Local spoke with the director of the Happiness Research Institute, who said that Denmark’s results “go against the common perception that we are happy when we are young and then it is all downhill from there”.
 
“Some people say that the 46th year of life is a global low point for happiness. One explanation for this could of course be that this is a time when we are pressured both from our career and by our children. Another explanation is that this might be the time of life when we must come to terms with the fact that we are just like everyone else – we’re not going to be big movie stars or football players and that might be hard to swallow for some,”  Happiness Research Institute CEO Meik Wiking told The Local. 
 
 
Wiking said that the Nordic welfare model can be credited for the fact that elderly Danes rate their life satisfaction so highly.
 
“What causes unhappiness for a lot of people, including the elderly, across the globe has been taken care of by the Danish welfare state. By that I mean the lack of access to healthcare, which as you age becomes even more important and also economic uncertainty. Those two factors explain a lot of unhappiness around the world,” Wiking told The Local. 
 
Wiking, whose institute studies happiness trends around the world, said life satisfaction has a direct impact on life span. 
 
“We know there is a link between happiness and health, so happier people have a lower mortality rate. That means that over time, those who are still alive will have a higher happiness average,” he said. 
 
“It’s not that people become happier [as they age], it’s that the unhappy ones die,” he said. 

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HAPPINESS

Just how happy are people in Germany?

The newest “Glücksatlas” (happiness index) measures overall life satisfaction every year. The coronavirus crisis has definitely been a powerful damper on the happiness of people everywhere. What role does age, gender, and region play, and how happy are folks in Germany?

Published: 19 November 2020 16:45 CET
Just how happy are people in Germany?
The pandemic does not stop this woman in Norderney, Lower Saxony from jumping on the beach. Photo: DPA

Less social contact, homeschooling, and dramatically reduced work life: The coronavirus crisis has hampered life satisfaction and happiness of people in Germany.

On a scale from 0 to 10, the respondents rated their contentment on average at 6.74 points, compared to the all-time high of 7.14 in 2019. This came from the new Happiness Index presented on Wednesday in Bonn.  

Nevertheless, “We are not in a ball of frustration,” said Bernd Raffelhüschen, Professor of public finance at the University of Freiburg, who created the tenth happiness index for the Deutsche Post.

Despite the pandemic the slump was relatively moderate, as the general level of happiness is still “in the upper middle field” of the scale. 

The Institute for Public Opinion Research in Allensbach asked a small group of 4,700 residents age 16 and up from March until June during the first lockdown.

Further data came from a long-term study from the German Institute for Economic Research (Ipso) as well as an Ipso's survey from June 2020.

READ ALSO: Here's where the happiest (and unhappiest) people live in Germany

According to the Happiness Index, men lost less contentment (minus 0.33 points) than women, who on average went down almost half a point, at 0.47 points.

The primary reason for this is that women were often strained on the front lines of the crisis, as mothers had to bear the heavy load of childcare and homeschooling. In addition, the life satisfaction of respondents from families with three or more children dropped at a rate above average, minus 0.9 points. 

Broken down into age groups, those between 45 and 59 years old lost the most contentment, as their rates dropped by 0.48 points.

According to the researchers, this age group is under particular economic stress. They often have more loans to pay off, older children to financially support, and must also make provisions for retirement. 

Declining regional differences

According to the report, the differences among regions have shrunk. The happiness of people in West Germany sank by 0,42 points, thus more than in East Germany (which dropped 0.3 points). 

“The coronavirus crisis is hitting the West harder, with higher infection rates coupled with more severe economic upheavals,” reported the researchers. The influence of the pandemic has almost equalized overall life satisfaction levels. Last year, the difference among regions was rather small. 

The happiest people live in the north: those living in Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg score 6.92 points on the scale, respectively. Thuringia comes at the bottom of the list at 6.50 points, and is the only east German state that has experienced a marked decrease in life satisfaction rates.

Objective reasons are not readily apparent, relayed Raffelhüschen. In any case, regional comparisons have rather limited informative values, due to smaller sample sizes and an adapted methodology. 

 
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