Julia Flynn Siler

By Julia Flynn Siler

April 30, 2025

What really makes for a fulfilling life? This question has been on Tyler J. VanderWeele’s mind for decades.

In his first faculty job as a biostatistician at the University of Chicago, he was dissatisfied with how scientists defined and measured human well-being. There were plenty of studies on specific measures of clinical symptoms, like depression, or emotional states like happiness or anxiety. Researchers had
tracked objective markers of health, like blood pressure or sleep quality as well as were how economic conditions influence health.

But while these measures captured specific slices of both the problems and
joys of life, VanderWeele felt they missed a holistic picture of what humans
really seek, especially the need for meaning and purpose in life.
Since that first job, his team has developed a more rounded way to measure
how people are doing – mentally, physically, and spiritually. They call it
“flourishing.” “Flourishing itself might be understood as a state in which all aspects of a
person’s life are good,” he wrote in an influential 2017 paper titled “On the promotion of human flourishing.” He and his team have since expanded that definition to include the context, communities, and environments in which a person lives.

Flourishing is a helpful concept because there are different ways to achieve
it. Not every measurable element of a person’s life must be perfect to
flourish. It also recognizes what matters to people — what gives meaning and
purpose to their lives — must resonate with their deepest values.
In the years since that initial insight, VanderWeele, now a Harvard professor,
has worked closed with Baylor University’s Byron R. Johnson, to create a
scientifically calibrated measure of flourishing in order to study it more
deeply. Five years ago, in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open
Science, they embarked on an ambitious five-year study of over 200,000
participants from 22 countries to find out what causes a person to flourish.
Its latest results, just out today in the journal Nature Mental Health, are
raising some provocative and disturbing questions about how people are
doing around the world.

A key takeaway? Community is crucial.”What we sometimes get wrong,
especially in the West and perhaps especially in American culture, is the
notion that complete autonomy will really help us to flourish,” VenderWeele
says. What we really need more of is one another. “The Global Flourishing Study reveals fascinating insights into the key question of what make a life well lived,” says Ian Goldin, a development economist at Oxford who was not involved in the study, but reviewed it prior to publication. “It is the choices we make, as individuals and communities,
not our material possessions or virtual engagements, that give us deep
satisfaction and a feeling of well-being.”

The flourishing age gap

The goal of the Global Flourishing Study is to gauge how individuals from
different countries have flourished over five years, based on participants’
annual answers to a number of questions about their lives – ranging from “I
understand my purpose in life” to “how would you rate your physical health”
to “how often do you worry about being able to meet normal monthly living
expenses?” The GFS focuses on six key areas: happiness and life satisfaction, mental and
physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social
relationships, and financial and material security. Answers to questions in
each area tallied up to get a snapshot of how well a person is doing.
Findings from the second wave of data released April 30 show that, in
general, people between the ages of 18 to 29 are not flourishing. “The most
concerning thing [to me] is that young people in many countries are not
doing well,” says VanderWeele. “This has real implications for policy and
raises questions about the extent to which we’re prioritizing the well-being of
youth and investing in in them.”

The conventional wisdom among those who study wellbeing is that people’s
satisfaction with their lives tends to form a U-shaped curve: higher in youth
and old age, and lower in the middle years. The latest results suggest the
shape of that experience may be flattening through age 18 to 49 and then
increasing after that. “The youngest people are reporting the lowest levels of
flourishing,” VanderWeele says. “It’s not the case universally… but it’s the
case in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Sweden, the United
States, and the United Kingdom.” (Notably: it’s not the case in Poland and
Tanzania.)

So, what’s changed? There are many potential causes. Social scientists
suggest that young people are struggling over issues of the cost of living,
fallout from the pandemic, uncertainties over work in the future, and a
general fraying of social institutions such as religion and government in
many parts of the world.

Other studies are also ringing similar alarm bells over the struggles of
younger people. The World Happiness Report, which reported its 2025
results in March and is also based on Gallup poll data, found that younger
people are in distress. In 2023, 19 percent of young adults across the world
reported they had no one they could count on for social support – a 39
percent increase compared to 2006.

Brandon Kwok, 24, who grew up in Singapore, began struggling with anxiety
attacks at 14 and now openly discusses the challenges he’s faced in avoiding
social isolation and, instead, seeking out social interactions with friends by
participating in sports teams and volunteering as a bartender at college. “The
biggest thing that’s affecting my generation is anxiety,” he said. “Nobody’s
got a playbook” for dealing with it.

Lower-income countries are outflourishing wealthy ones

One of the Flourishing Study’s research team’s most provocative findings is
that meaning in life and flourishing seems to be inversely correlated with a
country’s GDP (gross domestic product) per capita. “While the richer more
developed countries do report higher on things like financial security … they
don’t report as high on meaning, on relationships, on pro-social character,”
VenderWeele says, emphasizing that was a big surprise in the data.

People who attend weekly religious services tend to score higher on flourishing. But secular community events can make a big impact too. “Third world countries consistently outperform those in the First World in meaning and purpose,” says Baylor’s Johnson.
“You would expect the U.S. to
be at the top and that’s not the case. It’s not about GDP.” More follow-up is needed. “The data do not provide evidence that increased prosperity c a u s e s declines in flourishing,” says Eranda Jayawickreme, a psychology professor at Wake Forest University, who was not involved in the current research.

At least not yet. This ongoing project is doing something that most previous
studies of flourishing have not. It is tracking people’s responses to the survey
over a period of years (versus gauging them at one single point of time),
which may eventually help researchers draw conclusions about causality. “It
will be interesting to see if this evidence holds across subsequent waves of
this study.” (Also to note: While the study looked at some very rich countries,
and some less wealthy ones, the very poorest countries in the world were not
included. It’s hard to know where they’d fit in the flourishing rankings.)

Indonesians thrive in flourishing as Japan faces challenges

At the top of the Global Flourishing Study’s ranking is Indonesia, a
predominantly Muslim country which has the highest average scores in
many aspects of flourishing among the initial 22 countries. Its average
flourishing score is 8.47, compared to the U.S.’s 7.18. It’s also much less wealthy than the US. Why are people flourishing there? “Indonesia is an island country that has
always been incredibly diverse in ethnicity, language, culture, and religion,”
notes Johnson. “Like any country, it has conflicts, but the country really does
work hard to stress harmony.” One possible explanation for that: the
country’s traditional village and tribal structures have a history of seeking
peaceful relations, including those with different faiths. “In places where there are real economic struggles, there is still a deep sense of social orientation and a sense of meaning,” said VanderWeele, “and I think these things have been neglected in the West to some extent.”

Alberta Christina C. Pertiwi, 28, who helps direct undergraduate programs
at the Universitas Indonesia and lectures in its Anthropology Department,
has the perspective of someone who’s lived in New York, as a student at
Columbia University, and now in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she was born and
raised. Pertiwi’s experience in Indonesia has been that her students remain hopeful,
perhaps because they live in a country with strong social cohesion.
“It’s a culture of family togetherness, collectivism, that is manifested through
eating together and hanging out.”

While Indonesia, with a GDP per capita of $5,250 in 2025, came out on top in
flourishing, the U.S., with a per capita GDP of $89,680, was ranked in the
bottom third. Japan, with a GDP of $35,600, was dead last. Likewise, in this year’s World
Happiness Report, Japan’s rank was 55 – just below Uzbekistan’s, a country
with about one-tenth of Japan’s GDP. Taken together, this suggests the country is experiencing a lot of social strain. “Japan represents a cautionary tale about the risks of very rapid economic development,” says Brendan Case, Associate Director for Research at
Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, who worked closely with the report’s
data. He noted Japan’s ongoing debates about its falling birth rates,
challenges of family formation, the large numbers of men who are socially
isolated, and low levels of religious observance as potentially contributing to
its citizens (lack of) flourishing. “It seems plausible to wonder whether the
rapid pace of economic and cultural transformation that overtook Japan in
the last 150 years came at a relatively high cost in many areas of flourishing.”

How to flourish at any age

Insights on flourishing are urgently needed now – and not just for members
of Gen Z like Kwok. Measures of social isolation, loneliness, anxiety, and
other anti-social trends are soaring. What’s causing all this languishing, and
can we fight back?

We don’t yet have answers to these big societal questions. But as individuals,
we can all work towards flourishing. And VanderWeele’s interdisciplinary
group at Harvard hopes to spread the message that small changes can help.
Its recommendations? Participating in group activities – from bowling
leagues and volunteering at a food bank to joining faith communities – can
help us do better by increasing our sense of social connection. People who attend weekly religious services tend to score higher on flourishing. But secular community events can make a big impact too.

Consider Claire Parker, a retired British oncologist, who has faced some
serious challenges over the years. At 28, she lost a leg to cancer. At 55, she
ended a long marriage. Dr. Parker, now 64, says she flourishes despite her disability because she’s sought out ways to get involved in different communities, including
volunteering with the Falcon Boat Club, a nonprofit organization that has
supported her and other local water sports enthusiasts since 1869. She also
volunteers at schools and started a new beekeeping hobby. “It feels more
balanced in my life to be a volunteer,” she noted, noting it all has been “very
beneficial to my well-being.”

Volunteering and community involvement are powerful forms of social
connection. So is eating with others, which turns out to be a strong predictor
of happiness. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford University’s
Wellbeing Research Centre and a co-editor of this year’s World Happiness
Report, notes that in 2023, about 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all their
meals alone on the previous day – an increase of 53 percent since 2003. He
notes dining alone has risen significantly in East Asian countries, notably
Korea and Japan where the people surveyed reported sharing just one to two
dinners per week. This may be because of the intense work cultures of these
countries.

Spending more time with other people at meals and elsewhere and stepping
back to reflect on who we are and how we become better versions of
ourselves, can help us flourish. But the reality is that, in many places around
the world, modern-day economic and social pressures get in the way.
Kwok, the 24-year-old from Singapore, has turned to Aristotle in thinking
about how to flourish in his life. He is in his final undergraduate year at
Oxford studying philosophy, politics, and economics. He’s already got a job
lined up for himself in London after he graduates. But his new job will make
it harder for him to see his grandmother in Singapore. “It kind of stings a bit,” he admitted.

Drawing from his studies of Aristotle, he believes that to flourish, he should
meaningfully challenge himself – even if that means taking on a challenge
far away from home and family. Finding that balance, especially for young
people around the world, has not been easy.
But flourishing is a process, rather than a static condition, as the study’s
scientists note. It is not something we can ever perfectly achieve. There’s
always another chance to get the balance right.

Julia Flynn Siler, an academic visitor at Oxford University, is a nonfiction author and
journalist who has writing about rowing, dark skies, and faith and happiness for National
Geographic.

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