Home, Alone

News flash: America is not a very happy place these days.

This is too many of us. Credit: Microsoft Designer

No, I’m not talking about the current political divide (which is probably more accurately described as a chasm), at least not directly. I’m referring to the latest results from the World Happiness Report, which found that the U.S. has slid to 24^th place in the world, its lowest position ever. We were 11^th in 2011, the first such report.

Nordic countries scored the highest yet again, taking half of the top ten counties, with Finland repeating for the eighth year in a row as the happiest country. America’s nearest neighbors Mexico (10^th) and Canada (18^th) are happier places, tariffs or not.

The researchers declare: “Belief in the kindness of others is much more closely tied to happiness than previously thought.” They specifically cite the belief that others would return a lost wallet is a strong predictor of a country’s happiness, while noting that such returns are twice as likely as people believe them to be.

John F. Helliwell, an economist at the University of British Columbia, a founding editor of the World Happiness Report, said:

The wallet data are so convincing because they confirm that people are much happier living where they think people care about each other. The wallet dropping experiments confirm the reality of these perceptions, even if they are everywhere too pessimistic.

The U.S., as it turned out, ranked only 52^nd in believing a stranger would return a lost wallet, and even only 25^th that the police would. We were slightly more optimistic (17^th) that our neighbors would.  

Sharing meals with others is also strongly linked to happiness. “The extent to which you share meals is predictive of the social support you have, the pro-social behaviors you exhibit and the trust you have in others,” Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a University of Oxford professor and an author of the report, told The New York Times.

Unfortunately, the number of people dining alone in the U.S. has increased 53% over the past two decades. According to the Ajinomoto Group, among American adults under 25, it has jumped 80%.

Young Americans are helped drive our dismal results generally. “The decline in the U.S. in 2024 was at least partly attributable to Americans younger than age 30 feeling worse about their lives,” Ilana Ron-Levey, managing director at Gallup, told CNN. “Today’s young people report feeling less supported by friends and family, less free to make life choices and less optimistic about their living standards.”

Eighteen percent (18%) of young U.S. adults (18-29) report not having anyone they feel close to, the highest of all the U.S. age groups, and those same young adults also have lower quality of connections than older U.S. respondents. The report speculates: “Although not definitive, this provides intriguing preliminary evidence that relatively low connection among young people might factor into low wellbeing among young Americans.”

In fact, if the U.S. was measured just by the happiness of our young adults, we wouldn’t even rank in the top 60 countries. “It is really disheartening to see this, and it links perfectly with the fact that it’s the well-being of youth in America that’s off a cliff, which is driving the drop in the rankings to a large extent,” Professor De Neve said.

Researchers also point to inequality as an important factor. “In these Nordic Scandinavian countries, a rising tide lifts all boats, so the levels of economic inequality are much less, and that reflects in well-being as well,” Professor De Neve said. “In Finland, most people will rate [their happiness] as seven or an eight, whereas if you look at the distribution of well-being in the States, there’s a lot of 10s out there, but there’s a lot of ones as well.”

No wonder. According to The Urban Institute:

Wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country and has risen for much of the past 60 years. Racial wealth inequities have persisted for generations, reflecting the long-standing effects of racist policies, not individual intentions or deficits.

So, no, we’re not all in this together, especially with the bottom 50% having a mere 2.4% of all household wealth, one of the lowest points we’ve seen. Americans also say we’re deeply divided both politically and on values (which, of course, are not unrelated).

Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve summarized some key takeaways from their report::

This year’s report pushes us to look beyond traditional determinants like health and wealth. It turns out that sharing meals and trusting others are even stronger predictors of wellbeing than expected. In this era of social isolation and political polarisation we need to find ways to bring people around the table again — doing so is critical for our individual and collective wellbeing.

“The fact that we’re increasingly socially isolated means also that we’re not testing our ideas about the world with other people,” Dr. De Neve explained to the NYT. “And the more you sit around the table with other people who might have somewhat different views, the more you start moderating your own views. And the increasing lack of social interaction and social isolation as a result, for a lot of people — amplified by echo chambers — makes people more radical.”

If you’ve read Robert Putman’s classic Bowling Alone (2000) – and, if you haven’t, stop reading this, go buy a copy, and read it – then none of this will be a surprise. Professor Putnam described how, even before the advent of social media, the U.S. went from a society that did a wide variety of things together into one that tended to be more insular, at the cost of much of our social capital.  We could sure use that social capital now.

Sure, there’s a lot to be unhappy about in today’s America. Most Americans don’t think the country is on the right track. We don’t trust our various institutions. We use social media, but we’re very worried about its impact – much moreso than the rest of the world. Eight percent of us have no close friends. 

Look, I can understand being behind Finland, Denmark, even New Zealand in overall happiness, but Slovenia or the U.A.E.? Seriously. We need to put our phones down, stop arguing about politics, go out to eat with friends, and, for goodness’ sake, if you find a wallet, be sure to return it to its owner.