Happiness among American men and women reaches its estimated minimum at approximately ages 49 and 45 respectively. This the conclusion in a recent NBER paper, Is Well-being U-Shaped over the Life Cycle?. Blanchflower and Oswald study happiness and life-satisfaction data for half a million Americans and Europeans ... The authors emphasize that, because their research controls for many other influences upon happiness and life satisfaction -- including income, education, and marriage -- these results should be read as truly describing well-being.

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