Recession Tales: 16-17-Year-Olds Most Satisfied With Their Lives

An official inquiry has found that teens in Britain are most satisfied with their lives despite the economic turmoil. According to a report from the Office for National Statistics, the happiest group in the country are 16 and 17-year-olds, and teenagers also say they have lower anxiety levels than anyone else.

The findings have been pulled together for David Cameron's attempt to measure the happiness and well-being of the country, the two million pound-a-year drive to try to measure the state of the nation by means other than money, the Daily Mail reports.

Under the Measuring National Well-Being Programme, thousands of people are being asked how satisfied they are with their lives, how worthwhile their lives are, how happy they feel, and how anxious they are.

The report compared the survey answers with economic statistics that show how young people have been hit disproportionately hard by the recession.

The unemployment rate among people in their late teens and early 20s who are looking for jobs has nearly doubled in a decade and is now running at nearly one in five.

Almost eight per cent of twenty-something said they are too sick to work, and nearly two out of three people aged between 16 and 24 are still living at their parents' home.

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The report said: "Unemployment rates for those not in full-time education were 27 per cent of those aged 16 or 17 in 2002 compared with 40 per cent in 2012, and 11 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 in 2002 compared with 19 per cent in 2012."

Source-ANI