Global Research Explores How Human Well-Being Changes with Age

A comprehensive international study, the Global Flourishing Study, investigates whether people's overall well-being improves, declines, or remains stable as they age across various cultures and societies. Published across multiple reputable journals in the Nature Portfolio, BMC, and Springer imprints, the research analyzes data from over 200,000 individuals spanning 22 countries across six continents. This extensive dataset aims to understand the distribution and determinants of human flourishing—a state characterized by positive health, happiness, purpose, strong relationships, and financial security.

The study stems from growing interest among researchers in diverse fields such as psychology, economics, and public policy about whether humans are flourishing at different stages of life. Traditionally, most research focused on Western populations, leaving a gap in understanding global patterns. To bridge this, the Global Flourishing Study was created, collecting annual questionnaire data from participants from 2022 to 2027, addressing culturally specific and universal aspects of well-being.

In the key publication in Nature Mental Health, researchers including Tyler VanderWeele and Byron Johnson examined how a composite flourishing index relates to factors like age, gender, education, marital status, employment, religious participation, immigration, and ethnicity. Notably, findings reveal that in countries such as Brazil, Australia, and the U.S., well-being tends to increase with age. Conversely, in Poland and Tanzania, flourishing decreases with age, while Japan and Kenya show a U-shaped trend where well-being dips and then rises over a lifetime.

When responses across all 22 countries were combined, a pattern emerged where flourishing remains relatively stable among young adults aged 18–49, before increasing in later years. This suggests that many younger individuals globally may currently experience lower well-being compared to past generations. The study also found differences between countries regarding sex, with men flourishing more than women in Brazil, while women reported higher flourishing than men in Japan. Marital status often correlated positively with well-being, although exceptions existed, such as in India and Tanzania. Education generally linked to higher flourishing, except in specific contexts like Hong Kong and Australia.

Childhood health issues—poverty, abuse, or poor health—were associated with lower adult well-being in many countries, except in Germany, where poor childhood health surprisingly predicted higher flourishing in adulthood. The researchers acknowledge limitations, including the lack of data from low-income nations and potential cultural biases due to translation and cultural interpretation of survey questions.

Additional papers from the series explore variations in optimism, childhood predictors of financial stability, beliefs in deities and life after death, social trust, and more. VanderWeele and Johnson emphasize the importance of governments implementing robust data collection on well-being to formulate policies that foster flourishing worldwide. They advocate for a global effort to gather high-quality, culturally sensitive data to better understand and improve human happiness and well-being.

This groundbreaking research offers valuable insights into how aging impacts well-being across different cultures and highlights the need for tailored policies to promote human flourishing at every life stage.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-global-humans-flourish-age.html