Barely a third of us – just 37.6% of males and 36.6% of females – describe ourselves as happy. Here at the Guardian, we’re hoping to push those figures a little higher. In this Happy for life section and the app that will follow, we’ll be suggesting long-term strategies to improve your sense of wellbeing, as well as quick steps to immediately lift your mood. We hope you’ll soon be telling us how much more upbeat you’re feeling. But this is not just about turning frowns upside down – study after study shows that happier people live longer, more productive, more fulfilling lives.
As a nation, we don’t do a lot to challenge sexual stereotypes. For men and boys, the number one source of happiness is sporting events (women and girls put these in 19th place, out of a total 23), just ahead of computer games (number eight for females) and getting more money (six for females). For females, social media such as Twitter and Facebook come top, just above shopping (number 10 for males) and reading books (number 14 for males). Males are quite happy doing “nothing in particular” (number five, versus number 11 for females), as well as “relaxing” (seven versus nine). They’re less excited about helping other people (13 versus 23), despite all the research showing that this increases one’s sense of worth. Neither sex finds much joy in food (a combined ranking of 22), the news (23) or the internet (21). Happy for Life will try particularly hard to change that last one. You can help us by bookmarking this page.
The best years of our lives seem to be at the beginning and the end. The decades of work, child-rearing and mortgage-paying are less fun, particularly once you hit your mid-40s. Almost 43% of 16- to 24-year-olds describe themselves as happy, surpassed only by the 46% of the over-65s. Between 45 and 54, barely one in four can raise a smile.
We all need to move to the Midlands. In the west of the region, 44.6% of us say we are happy; in the east 41.9%. The national average is 37.1%.
From which we conclude …
Your very best chance of happiness is to be a 65-year-old man who lives in Wolverhampton, subscribes to Sky Sports and owns a state-of-the-art gaming console, paid for out of his lottery winnings. If that’s not you, keep watching this space.
