Junge Erwachsene berichten von einer geringeren Lebenszufriedenheit, einem schwächeren Sinngefühl im Leben und einer geringeren finanziellen Sicherheit als ältere Altersgruppen in Schweden. Im Vergleich zu den ältesten Befragten erleben sie außerdem doppelt so viel Einsamkeit, dreimal so viele depressive Symptome und siebenmal so viel Angst.
https://www.hhs.se/en/about-us/news/sse/2026/in-sweden-young-adults-feel-most-dissatisfied-while-the-oldest-thrive/
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In Sweden, young adults feel most dissatisfied while the oldest thrive
Young adults in Sweden feel significantly worse than older people in almost all areas of life. While older Swedes rank among the happiest in the world, young adults struggle with loneliness and psychological distress. These are the findings of a new large-scale study on flourishing in Sweden, published in the International Journal of Wellbeing and conducted by researchers at the Stockholm School of Economics, Lund University, Oslo Metropolitan University and Harvard University.
Based on survey responses from more than 15,000 people in Sweden, the study reveals clear age-related differences in happiness and wellbeing. **Young adults report lower life satisfaction, a weaker sense of meaning in life and lower financial security than older age groups. They also experience twice the level of loneliness, three times as many depressive symptoms and seven times the level of anxiety compared with the oldest respondents**.
For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://internationaljournalofwellbeing.org/index.php/ijow/article/view/6001/1299
Our cultures have consolidated power at the oldest rung of life. It has twisted society to propagate that hold and cut off the majority of youth from any potential chance at freedom or happiness so the powerful can maintain their control.
Societal crash happens when the system requires the majority to provide for such a tiny majority no one sees the point in any extension of effort anymore.
As a student of history the causality of societal collapse has become much more clear watching the disenfranchisement of society’s future before my eyes.
Why continue something that is essentially an abusive relationship?
Just for reference I am a 38 year old male living in a red state in the USA (my job is as an environment biochemist)
Swell. I’m an engineer and not a scientist though, so I’ll ask the million dollar question: what can be done about this?
> seven times the level of anxiety
Just a bit of perspective because I think the HHS summary worded this vaguely, but according to the original article: this is a measure of how **frequently** survey respondents reported symptoms of anxiety, not the average or mean level of anxiety across each group nor severity of anxiety among those that reported it. It is also not a measure clinical anxiety disorders. The original article states:
> In contrast, younger adults reported considerably higher levels of psychological distress. Depression averaged 0.37 in the youngest age group (18–24) compared to 0.11 in the oldest age group (80+), and anxiety was 0.35 versus 0.05. This means that younger adults reported depression symptoms about three times and anxiety symptoms about seven times **as often** as older adults.
and
> Particularly notable is the prevalence of anxiety-related symptoms among the youngest Swedes, which appeared up to **seven times more common** than in older adults.
This kind of issue is common when people without strong scientific backgrounds report on research papers.
As a Swede – our society provides infinite freedom but no purpose, no spirituality, no cohesion and no culture to be a part of. It’s up to the individual to find these things themselves and young people don’t know how to.
This amount of autonomy looks great on paper but it’s not a dish that the human pshyche enjoys in real life.
Maybe they should spend less time doomscrolling on social media, like Reddit.
Youth is wasted on the young. Money is wasted on the elderly
Yeah, no kidding. When billionaires and corporations that are effectively sovereign nations with no borders and can expand operations in ways that overtly deprive the surrounding community, do effectively nothing to change that image or simply care… crazy that drains people. Crazy that we’re just supposed to accept this incredible selfish behavior as acceptable. But here we are. Those that burn crosses are the same that hold office.
Sweden’s house-to-income ratio is almost 8. That’s worse than even Canada that has notoriously unaffordable housing. It’s hard to feel good about life when all your income goes to paying rent, home ownership is not within reach for most, and your work life is basically just servicing old people who are sitting on appreciated asset values. That’s a problem, and so is the fact that whether for job searching, job performance, socializing, dating, etc…. technology has put young people into competition with each other in a ruthless and pervasive meritocracy. It’s better than ever for those who end up in the top quartile economically/socially, and terrible for everyone else.
I’m late-middle-aged BTW. I am very glad that I grew up in a different time.
Neoliberalism is reaching its terminal phase.