Accessibility links
Peak Misery And The Happiness Curve : Planet Money How do you measure happiness? Economist David Blanchflower says age has a lot to do with it.
NPR logo

Peak Misery And The Happiness Curve

Listen · 9:42
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/802781417/802782669" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Peak Misery And The Happiness Curve

The Indicator from Planet Money

Peak Misery And The Happiness Curve

Peak Misery And The Happiness Curve

Listen · 9:42
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/802781417/802782669" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Enlarge this image

A happy David Blanchflower after catching a big fish. Blake Matherly /David Blanchflower hide caption

toggle caption
Blake Matherly /David Blanchflower

A happy David Blanchflower after catching a big fish.

Blake Matherly /David Blanchflower

David Blanchflower set out to determine what makes people happy. He surveyed people all over the world, from a variety of different backgrounds, and found that very young people and very old people tended to be the happiest, with a noticeable dip in the middle. On today's show David shares the exact age that happiness bottoms out – the age at which people reach their peak misery.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Newsletter.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One.