Studies show that the oldest people are often the happiest.
Lots of things get better with age — cheese, wine and, as two new University of Chicago studies shows, your life. University of Chicago sociologist Yang Yang interviewed 28,000 Americans to find out their thoughts on life and how satisfied they were with their lives. These were long interviews — they took him 1972 to 2004. He concluded that the older you are, the happier you are, no matter what your race or tax bracket. One of the reasons seniors were happy is being social. The other University of Chicago study found that 75% of seniors aged 57 to 85 participated in some sort of social activity at least once a week.
Making Peace With Life
Besides engaging in social activities (like going to church, playing sports or family get-togethers), Yang Yang also found another common factor in making seniors happy — they had made some sort of peace with their lives. They tried not to compare their lives with others, but saw how good their lives were in and of themselves. One study participant put it this way:
"I was a schoolteacher. So I didn’t win the Nobel Prize, but that’s okay."
(Quote came from the print version of the report in The Philadelphia Inquirer which did not make the online version of the article.)
As the ancients used to say, the secret of all wisdom was to "Know thyself". Apparently, by the time you get to your golden years, you finally figure it out.
The Unhappiest
In contrast, Yang Yang discovered that the unhappiest people were baby boomers, basically because they felt they didn’t accomplish monumental things. The youth of all races and economic situations were often unhappy (although the wealthier ones did tend to say they felt happier) but by the time they were facing mortality, they reported feeling happy. Death seems to be the great leveler in life’s playing field — which in this case, is a good thing.
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