Examining the utility of national indicators of relative age disadvantage in Europe

We introduce new indicators measuring relative age disadvantage of older compared with younger people at a national level. Drawing on data from 29 European countries, the study demonstrates that there is no consistent relative old age disadvantage with regard to the four indicators selected: satisfaction in life, perceived prejudice, perceived access to health services, and subjective income. Relative age disadvantages (i.e. the status of those aged 30–45 divided by the status of older adults aged 60–75) correlated negatively with overall levels of happiness at the country level. Multi-level analyses revealed cross-level interactions, indicating that countries with higher levels of relative age disadvantage were characterized by a more negative relation between age and happiness at the individual level. Our findings highlight a need to further investigate relative age disadvantages for understanding, describing, and potentially changing the situation of older people in modern societies.