The folks at Gallup do a worldwide report on happiness every year, but ironically, this year's report has made us exceedingly unhappy — since the US has fallen out of the top 20 happiest countries for the first time.

The US was up in the 15th spot last year, but our overall ranking in the countries has collapsed down to 23rd. Why? Now that age brackets are included in the report, we can see that young people are feeling much less cheerful than older folks.

Perhaps the ongoing climate catastrophe, cost of living crisis and democratic backsliding has something to do with it. Who could say? But regardless of the cause, Gallup has some interesting data points that are worth sharing.

Key findings:

• For those over 60, the US still makes the top 10 (at the tenth spot) on the list of happiest countries, with a score of 7.258 out of 10. That's a jump of 13 spots compared to the population on the whole

• Americans under 30, however, go down to 62nd place — dropping 39 places from the entire population. Younger people in the US have a happiness score of just 6.392.

• While the youthful among us are unhappy, most other places have the exact opposite problem. On a worldwide level, the under 30 crowd scores an average of 5.821 while the over 60 population earns a 5.294 score.

Via Gallup.

[Image: Kha Ruxury]