Young Australians Living With Their Parents Are Historically Unhappy

A study of wellbeing within Australian society has confirmed what you already knew: baby boomers are loving life, and young people are loving it less. The young people doing it toughest are those living with their parents. Meanwhile, older married couples are enjoying historically high levels of contentment.

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, a longitudinal study that has surveyed our national quality of life every year since 2000, is actually pretty optimistic in its findings overall. The level of personal wellbeing in Australia has been rising steadily over the last 16 years. The happiest Australians according to the survey are middle-aged married couples who live together. Other people who lived with partners also scored highly. The elderly are doing particularly well for themselves—people over the age of 76 are the happiest in the country.

For young people, however, the survey results tell a different story. Adults living at home with their parents have seen their levels of personal wellbeing drop to their lowest level in a decade, so it would seem that the advantages to eating from mum's fridge are limited, despite all those lazy millennial stereotypes. It's worth noting that, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about a third of young childless people are living at home, and that figure is on the rise.

One of the report's authors, Dr Delyse Hutchinson of Deakin University, explained to VICE that the noticeable happiness gap between young people and their parents was worth talking about. "Compared to average wellbeing levels reported in our most recent 2016 survey, adults who continue to live with their parents reported lower average life satisfaction of 72.0, compared to an average of 76.9 [out of 100]," she said.

While the survey doesn't look at why adults living with their parent report lower overall wellbeing, Hutchinson suggests that one explanation might be housing affordability. "Namely, these adults may not be able to afford to support living independently," she explained. It's a plausible theory—Australia's housing market is currently the second most expensive in the world, with the typical Australian house costing 5.6 times the median household income, and typical houses in Sydney costing up to 12.2 times what a middle income household would earn in a year. If your parents can't afford to help you out with a $200 000 deposit, the next best option is to live with them.

The results of the survey do not necessarily suggest that owning a property in itself equals happiness—more than living at home with mum and dad might not be the holiday that some people think it is.

"Other reasonable explanations [for discontent among young people] might include problems finding employment, and for some, mental health problems," Hutchinson said. The major determinants of wellbeing based on the survey's results are a sense of purpose in life, financial security, and strong personal relationships. "We call this the 'golden triangle of wellbeing'", Hutchinson said.

Hard to find that elusive sense of purpose when houses cost a million dollars though, hey.

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