The World Happiness Report 2024, which was released last week, starts with a reference to William Shakespeare’s famous passage in his play, As You Like It, on the seven ages of man, in which old age is portrayed as deeply depressing – a “second childishness and mere oblivion”, in the words of the Bard.

But it turns out that in our time, that is far from true in much of the world. One of the most striking findings of the report is that in several countries, those aged 60 and above are happier than those below 30.