“Having reached retirement, Romanians wait for their lives to end”. The reasons why Romania is constantly falling in the top of the happy countries

Romanians are increasingly unhappy as they get older. That’s the worrying conclusion of the latest global happiness report, which shows we’re sadder than we were last year. Romania lost eight places in the ranking in just one year.

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Romania ranks 32nd in the top of the happiest countries out of 143 countries. Last year, our country was in 24th place, according to the World Happiness Report. Finland is in first place for the seventh consecutive year.

“Things are nuanced by region. As a general rule, young people are happier, and then the level of happiness declines in middle age, then towards old age we start to rediscover the meaning of happiness.

In Romania, seniors do not have as high a level of happiness as in Western countries, we do not have the concept of active aging, ours when they retire consider that life is over, they are waiting for their life to end. I don’t see that period as a new stage. Then there are the issues of financial needs in old age.

On the other hand, young people in Romania have an increased level of happiness, even slightly above that of young people in the Western world. Here is an interesting phenomenon. Young people in the western world tend to leave home when they reach 18 years old, to live on their own. They faced a lot of different crises, during the 2008 crisis period – in the study we cover the period 2006 – 2010 – and in the current period when we have economic, social crises, war, we had Covid, war. So in their case, the level of happiness decreased.

On the other hand, Romanians are used to being supported by our parents for a longer period of time, and the contact with crises was not so complicated,” explained Daniel David, rector of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University (UBB) in Cluj-Napoca.

The 20 happiest countries in the world in 2024

1. Finland

2. Denmark

3. Iceland

4. Sweden

5. Israel

6. The Netherlands

7. Norway

8. Luxembourg

9. Switzerland

10. Australia

11. New Zealand

12. Costa Rica

13. Kuwait

14. Austria

15. Canada

16. Belgium

17. Ireland

18. The Czech Republic

19. Lithuania

20. United Kingdom

Afghanistan remains the lowest ranked country in the world in terms of happiness. Lebanon, Lesotho, Sierra Leone and Congo are also in the last places.

Publisher: GM

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