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.