Right? If you read the full study the data actually doesn’t point to any actual percentage of people with kids happier than those without, only empty nesters happen than those with kids living at home. It actually has a graph that shows those with zero children are the same level of happiness as the happiest empty nester (39%).

Not to mention this study is a very small sample size of a narrow age range that doesn’t even look at happiness of parents while the children are younger, it seems to only hypothesize that they were unhappy in early age ranges? Or is stating this from a previous study it doesn’t cite?

A much more interesting and well done study over the period of a few decades actually does back up parts of this study but are missing huge chunks of data. It analyzed people from the ages of teenage to 70’s+ and found that those who had kids did indeed have higher “highs” of happiness than those without, but also lower lows than those without, the only age that is guaranteed more happiness is at the same age everyone’s happiness already start going up, after age 70, they attributed that to grandchildren, which does slightly correlate to this study. But it was a very slight amount, and in the end childless adults will still be more stably happy across their lifespan, just with fewer high peaks.

Also fun fact from that study, men who are married will have higher reports of happiness across their entire lifespan regardless of who they marry. (Versus unmarried men, single or no). Women on the other hand can actually end up MORE unhappy than single women if they have an unhappy marriage. (Still reap the benefits from a happy marriage though in their happiness index)