We’re happy as children, but it’s all downhill from there until we’re pushing 60 | Torsten Bell

Don't fret about having a midlife crisis - you probably deserve cheering up by then

The meaning of life?Famously 42, according to a supercomputer asked the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything" in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But what's the shape of life? A U". It appears our self-reported happiness or wellbeing is highest as children and older adults, with a massive slump in middle age. That slump goes on getting worse from age 30 until our late 50s, so calling it a midlife crisis is way too optimistic.

I shared Britain's U-shaped happiness curve on social media last week, prompting a lot of responses - not just from traumatised 35-year-olds realising they've got two decades of this ahead. Many suggestions for what might be driving the U-shaped pattern were country specific - pointing out that older adults are the lucky ones with houses and defined benefit pensions.