A global survey asked internet users what brings them joy. Researchers tracked ten categories across nine markets over three and a half years. 

Between July 2022 and December 2025, every single source of joy either declined or held flat.

The data for the visualization above comes from the WARC 2026 Global Consumer Trends Report accessed via Media Brief. 

NOTE: It’s based on 10,658 respondents in July 2022 and 8,831 in December 2025, all of whom were internet users aged 16-64.

TL;DR

• Family time saw the largest fall as a source of joy, dropping from 66% to 53%; work dropped 25% proportionally from 20% to 15%
• Only going out to bars and clubs held flat at 22%, the sole data point showing zero change across the entire three-and-a-half-year period.

Family: The Biggest Fall in the Most Important Category

In July 2022, 66% of respondents said spending time with family brought them joy. 

By December 2025, that figure was 53%. Thirteen percentage points were erased from the most fundamental human source of happiness in three and a half years.

A 13-point decline in family joy is the largest absolute decline in the entire dataset and the steepest drop among the top five categories. 

Longitudinal happiness research, including the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which followed participants for more than 80 years, consistently identifies close relationships as the single strongest predictor of long-term well-being. 

Friends, Exercise, and Dining Had Uniform Retreat

Spending time with friends fell from 47% to 42%. Exercise and sports fell from 43% to 36%.

The exercise finding is particularly striking given the commercial fitness boom of the same period: 

• Gym memberships expanded
• Wellness apps proliferated
• Athletic participation grew. 

Yet the share of finding joy in exercise contracted. 

Physical activity has increasingly become an obligation rather than a pleasure for a significant portion of the surveyed population.

Dining out falling from 46% to 39% is consistent with cost-of-living pressure that has compressed discretionary spending across multiple global markets through 2024 and 2025.

What Barely Moved

Animals and pets as a source of joy fell just one percentage point, from 36% to 35%. 

Attending live events fell one point, from 23% to 22%. Going out to bars and clubs held exactly flat at 22%, the only data point showing zero change across the entire measurement period.

The categories that are held are those most removed from social obligation, economic pressure, and performance expectations. 

Travel and vacations showed the smallest decline among the top five, falling just three points from 50% to 47%.

ELI5

A big survey asked thousands of people in nine countries what makes them happy. Every single thing on the list (family, friends, work, exercise, eating out) got less popular as a happy thing between 2022 and 2025. Only “going to bars” stayed the same. Family dropped the most. The survey suggests people around the world are feeling less joy from almost everything in their lives.

Source: 

GWI Zeitgeist via WARC 2026 Global Consumer Trends Report | Media Brief