For Lots of People, Getting Older Means Getting Happier

31 August 2010

Rush Spedden stands in front of a group of the Wild Old Bunch at a ski resort in Alta, Utah, in this file photo

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Old age may not sound exciting. But recent findings offer good news for older people and for people worried about getting older.

Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, they say by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were when they were eighteen years old.

The findings came from a survey of more than three hundred forty thousand adults in the United States. The Gallup Organization questioned them by telephone in two thousand eight. At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five.

The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress.

Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five.

The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.

Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.