Crap jobs, fewer homes, less money, toxic politics. And peak happiness eludes the young: who knew? | Zoe Williams

A massive 77% are more content with their lives after they hit 40 , with two-thirds saying they no longer cared what other people thought.

The UN , meanwhile, has survey results from the UK , Ireland , the US , Canada , Australia and New Zealand .

The economist David Blanchflower , co-author with the academic psychologist Jean Twenge , is blunt: there’s a “crisis in wellbeing among the young”.

Is it really happiness, for the over-40s, if it’s powered by denial (also, according to Weetabix , hiking)? Or is denial what any generation would choose, if their material conditions allowed it? Either way, I suspect the range of and capacity for joy is the same across every age group; we’re the same people, dealing with different facts. - Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist.