World Happiness Report 2024

Why are you happy? - Well, I'm a Buddhist nun, and the Dharma and Sangha are so beautiful.

Buddha, why are you always smiling?

In this issue of the World Happiness Report we focus on the happiness of people at different stages of life.

In the "Seven Ages of Man" (listed below) in Shakespeare’s hypnotic As You Like It, the later stages of life are portrayed as deeply depressing.

But happiness research shows a more nuanced picture, one that is changing over time.

Explore the 2024 report for the latest findings on the happiness of the world’s young, old – and everyone in between.

Shakespeare: All the world's a stage

The Seven Ages by William Shakespeare (Kanish Mahajan/slideshare.net)

.

Act II, Scene VII, Line 139 features one of [Edward De Vere's aka] Shakespeare's most famous monologues, spoken by the character Jaques, which begins:

"All the world's a stage

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts"

The central metaphor, stated in vivid verbal sketches, is that a human lifespan is a play in seven acts. These seven "acts," or "ages," are:

At first, [1] the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then [2] the whining schoolboy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then [3] the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then [4] a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then [5] the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into [6] the lean and slippered pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is [7] second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."

Read the Report

We prefer to think of smiling as face yoga, Thich Nhat Hanh, not just the mouth.

• 

  Fat, Happy Budai (Hotei)

  Chapter 1: Happiness and Age: Summary
• Chapter 2: Happiness of the younger, the older, and those in between
• Chapter 3: Child and Adolescent Well-being: Global Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities
• Chapter 4: Supporting the Well-being of an Aging Global Population: Associations between Well-being and Dementia
• Chapter 5: Differences in Life Satisfaction among Older Adults in India

Home | The World Happiness Report; Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Shauna Schwartz (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly