Flourishing Study Finds Relationships Strong, Optimism Scarce

In a survey of 53,799 adults across 92 countries, only 6.5 percent cleared the bar for flourishing, and the young scored worst. [Global Mental Wealth: well-being in 92 countries (Social Indicators Research)]

Flourishing, in the study published October 30 in Social Indicators Research, meant scoring at least 60 of 70 across ten well-being statements while showing few signs of depression or anxiety. Most people didn't get there — but not because their relationships failed. [Global Mental Wealth: well-being in 92 countries (Social Indicators Research)] [The happiness curve has changed (Earth.com)]

Read the pattern in the scores. Across all 92 countries, the highest marks went to close relationships, a sense of meaning, personal competence and engagement with daily life. The lowest went to optimism and vitality. Even the 93.5 percent who missed the flourishing bar scored relatively well on relationships and meaning. The deficit this survey measures isn't disconnection. It's expectation, and energy. [The happiness curve has changed (Earth.com)]

The age result breaks a famous shape. Well-being research long described a U-curve — a midlife dip, then recovery. In this dataset the young end of the curve is the low point: adults aged 18 to 25 were the most vulnerable group measured, with only 14.7 percent showing no signs of mental illness and 28.6 percent reporting moderate-to-severe indicators of depression and anxiety. The paper also finds languishing running worse in higher-income countries, even where education and income trends point the right way. [Global Mental Wealth: well-being in 92 countries (Social Indicators Research)] [The happiness curve has changed (Earth.com)]

The instrument deserves its footnote. The survey was led by Kai Ruggeri of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and fielded by 261 volunteer researchers between June and August 2025, in 50 languages, at about six minutes per respondent; the final sample of 53,799 was screened from more than 69,000 responses. It ran mostly online, which undercounts rural, lower-income and less digitally connected adults, and its screeners measure symptoms — they aren't clinical diagnoses. The shape of the result survives those caveats; the precision of any single number shouldn't be oversold. [Global Mental Wealth: well-being in 92 countries (Social Indicators Research)] [The happiness curve has changed (Earth.com)]

Strip the study to its practical claim and it's this: the people in it aren't reporting empty lives. They're reporting full ones — connected, meaningful, competent — that they don't expect to improve and often don't have the energy for. That's a different problem from loneliness, and it won't be solved by another way to meet people. It asks a harder question: what would have to change for a connected person to believe next year beats this one? [The happiness curve has changed (Earth.com)]