Annual estimates of life satisfaction, feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile, happiness and anxiety in the UK, by national, country, regional, county, local and unitary authority level and personal characteristics including analysis on the characteristics that are most likely to impact personal well-being.

Standard deviation of responses for 'Life Satisfaction' in the First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Wellbeing survey.

The Office for National Statistics has included the four subjective well-being questions below on the Annual Population Survey (APS), the largest of their household surveys.

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

This dataset presents results from the first of these questions, "Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?". Respondents answer these questions on an 11 point scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’. The well-being questions were asked of adults aged 16 and older.

Well-being estimates for each unitary authority or county are derived using data from those respondents who live in that place. Responses are weighted to the estimated population of adults (aged 16 and older) as at end of September 2011.

The data cabinet also makes available the proportion of people in each county and unitary authority that answer with ‘low wellbeing’ values. For the ‘life satisfaction’ question answers in the range 0-6 are taken to be low wellbeing.

This dataset contains the standard deviation of the responses, alongside the corresponding sample size.

The ONS survey covers the whole of the UK, but this dataset only includes results for counties and unitary authorities in England, for consistency with other statistics available at this website.

At this stage the estimates are considered ‘experimental statistics’, published at an early stage to involve users in their development and to allow feedback. Feedback can be provided to the ONS via this email address.

The APS is a continuous household survey administered by the Office for National Statistics. It covers the UK, with the chief aim of providing between-census estimates of key social and labour market variables at a local area level. Apart from employment and unemployment, the topics covered in the survey include housing, ethnicity, religion, health and education. When a household is surveyed all adults (aged 16+) are asked the four subjective well-being questions.

The 12 month Subjective Well-being APS dataset is a sub-set of the general APS as the well-being questions are only asked of persons aged 16 and above, who gave a personal interview and proxy answers are not accepted. This reduces the size of the achieved sample to approximately 120,000 adult respondents in England.

The original data is available from the ONS website.

Detailed information on the APS and the Subjective Wellbeing dataset is available here.

As well as collecting data on well-being, the Office for National Statistics has published widely on the topic of wellbeing. Papers and further information can be found here.

In order to request access to this data please complete the data request form.* * University of Bristol staff should use this form instead. Surveying UK-wide academic mental health researchers to develop recommendations for mental health support that address challenges arising from exposure to distressing research material, such as self-harm and suicide.

The Northern Ireland Health and Social Wellbeing Survey is sponsored by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, to provide information on and monitor trends in the health of the Northern Ireland population over time.

The regional strategy for Northern Ireland health and personal social services, published in 1991, set out key health targets in a number of areas. The aim in setting these targets is to increase life expectancy among the population and to improve the quality of people's lives. Good quality information is vital for the formulation of health policies. The Health and Social Wellbeing Survey provides this information and plays a key role in ensuring that health planning is based on reliable information, as well as monitoring the effectiveness of government policies and the extent to which targets are achieved. The survey will be used to help plan health services to meet the needs of the population.

Further information about the survey, including links to online publications, may be found on the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) Health and Social Wellbeing Survey web pages.

Percentage of responses in range 0-6 out of 10 (corresponding to 'low wellbeing') for 'Life Satisfaction' in the First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Wellbeing survey.

The Office for National Statistics has included the four subjective well-being questions below on the Annual Population Survey (APS), the largest of their household surveys.

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

This dataset presents results from the first of these questions, "Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?" Respondents answer these questions on an 11 point scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’. The well-being questions were asked of adults aged 16 and older.

Well-being estimates for each unitary authority or county are derived using data from those respondents who live in that place. Responses are weighted to the estimated population of adults (aged 16 and older) as at end of September 2011.

The data cabinet also makes available the proportion of people in each county and unitary authority that answer with ‘low wellbeing’ values. For the ‘life satisfaction’ question answers in the range 0-6 are taken to be low wellbeing.

This dataset contains the percentage of responses in the range 0-6. It also contains the standard error, the sample size and lower and upper confidence limits at the 95% level.

The ONS survey covers the whole of the UK, but this dataset only includes results for counties and unitary authorities in England, for consistency with other statistics available at this website.

At this stage the estimates are considered ‘experimental statistics’, published at an early stage to involve users in their development and to allow feedback. Feedback can be provided to the ONS via this email address.

The APS is a continuous household survey administered by the Office for National Statistics. It covers the UK, with the chief aim of providing between-census estimates of key social and labour market variables at a local area level. Apart from employment and unemployment, the topics covered in the survey include housing, ethnicity, religion, health and education. When a household is surveyed all adults (aged 16+) are asked the four subjective well-being questions.

The 12 month Subjective Well-being APS dataset is a sub-set of the general APS as the well-being questions are only asked of persons aged 16 and above, who gave a personal interview and proxy answers are not accepted. This reduces the size of the achieved sample to approximately 120,000 adult respondents in England.

The original data is available from the ONS website.

Detailed information on the APS and the Subjective Wellbeing dataset is available here.

As well as collecting data on well-being, the Office for National Statistics has published widely on the topic of wellbeing. Papers and further information can be found here.

Average (mean) rating for 'Happy Yesterday' in the First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Wellbeing survey.

The Office for National Statistics has included the four subjective well-being questions below on the Annual Population Survey (APS), the largest of their household surveys.

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

This dataset presents results from the third of these questions, "Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?". Respondents answer these questions on an 11 point scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’. The well-being questions were asked of adults aged 16 and older.

Well-being estimates for each unitary authority or county are derived using data from those respondents who live in that place. Responses are weighted to the estimated population of adults (aged 16 and older) as at end of September 2011.

This dataset contains the mean responses: the average reported value for respondents resident in each area. It also contains the standard error, the sample size and lower and upper confidence limits at the 95% level.

The data cabinet also makes available the proportion of people in each county and unitary authority that answer with ‘low wellbeing’ values. For the ‘happy yesterday’ question answers in the range 0-6 are taken to be low wellbeing.

The ONS survey covers the whole of the UK, but this dataset only includes results for counties and unitary authorities in England, for consistency with other statistics available at this website.

At this stage the estimates are considered ‘experimental statistics’, published at an early stage to involve users in their development and to allow feedback. Feedback can be provided to the ONS via this email address.

The APS is a continuous household survey administered by the Office for National Statistics. It covers the UK, with the chief aim of providing between-census estimates of key social and labour market variables at a local area level. Apart from employment and unemployment, the topics covered in the survey include housing, ethnicity, religion, health and education. When a household is surveyed all adults (aged 16+) are asked the four subjective well-being questions.

The 12 month Subjective Well-being APS dataset is a sub-set of the general APS as the well-being questions are only asked of persons aged 16 and above, who gave a personal interview and proxy answers are not accepted. This reduces the size of the achieved sample to approximately 120,000 adult respondents in England.

The original data is available from the ONS website.

Detailed information on the APS and the Subjective Wellbeing dataset is available here.

As well as collecting data on well-being, the Office for National Statistics has published widely on the topic of wellbeing. Papers and further information can be found here.

An overview of UK’s progress across ten domains of national well-being. Latest and historical data are provided. Sub-population breakdowns by UK countries and ITL1 regions, age and sex, as well as quality information, are included where available.

Average (mean) rating for 'Worthwhile' in the First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Wellbeing survey.

The Office for National Statistics has included the four subjective well-being questions below on the Annual Population Survey (APS), the largest of their household surveys.

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

This dataset presents results from the second of these questions, "Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?". Respondents answer these questions on an 11 point scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’. The well-being questions were asked of adults aged 16 and older.

Well-being estimates for each unitary authority or county are derived using data from those respondents who live in that place. Responses are weighted to the estimated population of adults (aged 16 and older) as at end of September 2011.

This dataset contains the mean responses: the average reported value for respondents resident in each area. It also contains the standard error, the sample size and lower and upper confidence limits at the 95% level.

The data cabinet also makes available the proportion of people in each county and unitary authority that answer with ‘low wellbeing’ values. For the ‘worthwhile’ question answers in the range 0-6 are taken to be low wellbeing.

The ONS survey covers the whole of the UK, but this dataset only includes results for counties and unitary authorities in England, for consistency with other statistics available at this website.

At this stage the estimates are considered ‘experimental statistics’, published at an early stage to involve users in their development and to allow feedback. Feedback can be provided to the ONS via this email address.

The APS is a continuous household survey administered by the Office for National Statistics. It covers the UK, with the chief aim of providing between-census estimates of key social and labour market variables at a local area level. Apart from employment and unemployment, the topics covered in the survey include housing, ethnicity, religion, health and education. When a household is surveyed all adults (aged 16+) are asked the four subjective well-being questions.

The 12 month Subjective Well-being APS dataset is a sub-set of the general APS as the well-being questions are only asked of persons aged 16 and above, who gave a personal interview and proxy answers are not accepted. This reduces the size of the achieved sample to approximately 120,000 adult respondents in England.

The original data is available from the ONS website.

Detailed information on the APS and the Subjective Wellbeing dataset is available here.

As well as collecting data on well-being, the Office for National Statistics has published widely on the topic of wellbeing. Papers and further information can be found here.

Percentage of responses in range 4-10 out of 10 (corresponding to 'low wellbeing') for 'Anxious Yesterday' in the First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Wellbeing survey.

The Office for National Statistics has included the four subjective well-being questions below on the Annual Population Survey (APS), the largest of their household surveys.

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

This dataset presents results from the last of these questions, "Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?" Respondents answer these questions on an 11 point scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’. The well-being questions were asked of adults aged 16 and older.

Well-being estimates for each unitary authority or county are derived using data from those respondents who live in that place. Responses are weighted to the estimated population of adults (aged 16 and older) as at end of September 2011.

The data cabinet also makes available the proportion of people in each county and unitary authority that answer with ‘low wellbeing’ values. For the ‘anxious yesterday’ question answers in the range 4-10 are taken to be low wellbeing. Unlike the other questions, in this case a high value of the response corresponds to low wellbeing.

This dataset contains the percentage of responses in the range 4-10. It also contains the standard error, the sample size and lower and upper confidence limits at the 95% level.

The ONS survey covers the whole of the UK, but this dataset only includes results for counties and unitary authorities in England, for consistency with other statistics available at this website.

At this stage the estimates are considered ‘experimental statistics’, published at an early stage to involve users in their development and to allow feedback. Feedback can be provided to the ONS via this email address.

The APS is a continuous household survey administered by the Office for National Statistics. It covers the UK, with the chief aim of providing between-census estimates of key social and labour market variables at a local area level. Apart from employment and unemployment, the topics covered in the survey include housing, ethnicity, religion, health and education. When a household is surveyed all adults (aged 16+) are asked the four subjective well-being questions.

The 12 month Subjective Well-being APS dataset is a sub-set of the general APS as the well-being questions are only asked of persons aged 16 and above, who gave a personal interview and proxy answers are not accepted. This reduces the size of the achieved sample to approximately 120,000 adult respondents in England.

The original data is available from the ONS website.

Detailed information on the APS and the Subjective Wellbeing dataset is available here.

As well as collecting data on well-being, the Office for National Statistics has published widely on the topic of wellbeing. Papers and further information can be found here.

Percentage of responses in range 0-6 out of 10 (corresponding to 'low wellbeing') for 'Worthwhile' in the First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Wellbeing survey.

The Office for National Statistics has included the four subjective well-being questions below on the Annual Population Survey (APS), the largest of their household surveys.

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

This dataset presents results from the second of these questions, "Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?" Respondents answer these questions on an 11 point scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’. The well-being questions were asked of adults aged 16 and older.

Well-being estimates for each unitary authority or county are derived using data from those respondents who live in that place. Responses are weighted to the estimated population of adults (aged 16 and older) as at end of September 2011.

The data cabinet also makes available the proportion of people in each county and unitary authority that answer with ‘low wellbeing’ values. For the ‘worthwhile’ question answers in the range 0-6 are taken to be low wellbeing.

This dataset contains the percentage of responses in the range 0-6. It also contains the standard error, the sample size and lower and upper confidence limits at the 95% level.

The ONS survey covers the whole of the UK, but this dataset only includes results for counties and unitary authorities in England, for consistency with other statistics available at this website.

At this stage the estimates are considered ‘experimental statistics’, published at an early stage to involve users in their development and to allow feedback. Feedback can be provided to the ONS via this email address.

The APS is a continuous household survey administered by the Office for National Statistics. It covers the UK, with the chief aim of providing between-census estimates of key social and labour market variables at a local area level. Apart from employment and unemployment, the topics covered in the survey include housing, ethnicity, religion, health and education. When a household is surveyed all adults (aged 16+) are asked the four subjective well-being questions.

The 12 month Subjective Well-being APS dataset is a sub-set of the general APS as the well-being questions are only asked of persons aged 16 and above, who gave a personal interview and proxy answers are not accepted. This reduces the size of the achieved sample to approximately 120,000 adult respondents in England.

The original data is available from the ONS website.

Detailed information on the APS and the Subjective Wellbeing dataset is available here.

As well as collecting data on well-being, the Office for National Statistics has published widely on the topic of wellbeing. Papers and further information can be found here.

Non-seasonally adjusted quarterly estimates of life satisfaction, feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile, happiness and anxiety in the UK.

The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) series provides data on the prevalence of both treated and untreated psychiatric disorder in the English adult population (aged 16 and over). This survey is the fourth in a series and was conducted by NatCen Social Research, in collaboration with the University of Leicester, for NHS Digital. The previous surveys were conducted in 1993 (16-64 year olds) and 2000 (16-74 year olds) by the Office for National Statistics, which covered England, Scotland and Wales. The 2007 Survey included people aged over 16 and covered England only. The survey used a robust stratified, multi-stage probability sample of households and assesses psychiatric disorder to actual diagnostic criteria for several disorders. The report features chapters on: common mental disorders, mental health treatment and service use, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychotic disorder, autism, personality disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, alcohol, drugs, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and self-harm, and comorbidity. All the APMS surveys have used largely consistent methods. They have been designed so that the survey samples can be combined. This is particularly useful for examination of low prevalence population groups and disorders. For example, in the APMS 2014 survey report, analyses of psychotic disorder (Chapter 5) and autism (Chapter 6) have been run using the 2007 and 2014 samples combined. Due to the larger sample size, we consider estimates based on the combined sample to be the more robust. Further notes on the Autism chapter can be found with that chapter and in the 'Additional notes on autism' document below. NHS Digital carried out a consultation exercise to obtain feedback from users on the APMS publication and statistics. The consultation will inform the design, content and reporting of any future survey. The consultation closed 30 December 2016, findings will be made available by April 2017. You can access the results of consultation when available in the Related Links below. A correction has been made to this publication in September 2017. This correction applies to all statistics relating to people receiving medication for a mental health condition and more widely to people accessing mental health treatment. This correction increases the proportion of adults (aged 16-74) with a common mental disorder accessing mental health treatment in 2014 from 37 per cent to 39 per cent. Overall the proportion of all people receiving mental health treatment in 2014 increases from 12 per cent to 13 per cent. Logistic regression models used in chapter 3 have not been corrected due to the change not being large enough to change the findings of this analysis. A further correction has been made to this publication in February 2018. This correction applies to statistics for Asian/Asian British men and all adults in Table 10.5 - Harmful and dependent drinking in the past year (observed and age-standardised), by ethnic group and sex. Statistics for the number of respondents with an AUDIT score of 16 or over previously incorrectly included only those with an AUDIT score between 16 and 19. This has now been corrected to include respondents with an AUDIT score of 20 or more. NHS Digital apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Estimates of life satisfaction, feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile, happiness and anxiety at the UK, country, regional, county, local and unitary authority level.

The Management and Wellbeing Practices Survey, 2018 (MWP) provides evidence on employment relations and management practices in British workplaces, focusing specifically on flexible working, shared parental leave and worker representation. The survey was undertaken in late 2018 to early 2019.

The survey is nationally representative, including telephone interviews with around 2,500 employers across Great Britain. The design and administration of the survey was led by Kantar Public. NIESR led on the analysis and reporting of the survey data.

This research was commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a major survey series, which aims to provide data that can produce reliable estimates at the local authority level. Key topics covered in the survey include education, employment, health and ethnicity. The APS comprises key variables from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), all its associated LFS boosts and the APS boost. The APS aims to provide enhanced annual data for England, covering a target sample of at least 510 economically active persons for each Unitary Authority (UA)/Local Authority District (LAD) and at least 450 in each Greater London Borough. In combination with local LFS boost samples, the survey provides estimates for a range of indicators down to Local Education Authority (LEA) level across the United Kingdom.

For further detailed information about methodology, users should consult the Labour Force Survey User Guide, included with the APS documentation. For variable and value labelling and coding frames that are not included either in the data or in the current APS documentation, users are advised to consult the latest versions of the LFS User Guides, which are available from the ONS Labour Force Survey - User Guidance webpages.

Occupation data for 2021 and 2022
The ONS has identified an issue with the collection of some occupational data in 2021 and 2022 data files in a number of their surveys. While they estimate any impacts will be small overall, this will affect the accuracy of the breakdowns of some detailed (four-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)) occupations, and data derived from them. None of ONS' headline statistics, other than those directly sourced from occupational data, are affected and you can continue to rely on their accuracy. The affected datasets have now been updated. Further information can be found in the ONS article published on 11 July 2023: Revision of miscoded occupational data in the ONS Labour Force Survey, UK: January 2021 to September 2022

APS Well-Being Datasets
From 2012-2015, the ONS published separate APS datasets aimed at providing initial estimates of subjective well-being, based on the Integrated Household Survey. In 2015 these were discontinued. A separate set of well-being variables and a corresponding weighting variable have been added to the April-March APS person datasets from A11M12 onwards. Further information on the transition can be found in the Personal well-being in the UK: 2015 to 2016 article on the ONS website.

APS disability variables
Over time, there have been some updates to disability variables in the APS. An article explaining the quality assurance investigations on these variables that have been conducted so far is available on the ONS Methodology webpage.

• age: single year of age, year and month of birth, age completed full-time education and age obtained highest qualification, age of oldest dependent child and age of youngest dependent child
• family unit and household: including a number of variables concerning the number of dependent children in the family according to their ages, relationship to head of household and relationship to head of family
• nationality and country of origin
• geography: including county, unitary/local authority, place of work, Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 2 (NUTS2) and NUTS3 regions, and whether lives and works in same local authority district
• health: including main health problem, and current and past health problems
• education and apprenticeship: including numbers and subjects of various qualifications and variables concerning apprenticeships
• industry: including industry, industry class and industry group for main, second and last job, and industry made redundant from
• occupation: including 4-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) for main, second and last job and job made redundant from
• system variables: including week number when interview took place and number of households at address

The Secure Access data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users will need to gain ONS Accredited Researcher status, complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables. Users are strongly advised to first obtain the standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements.

Personal Well-Being, April 2012 - March 2015
The ONS have released a combined three-year Personal Well-Being dataset covering April 2012 to March 2015 in response to user demand. The enhanced sample size of this dataset allows for more robust analysis of sub groups in the population and for local areas. Further information may be found in the documentation.

The SL access version of the APS April 2012 - March 2015 Personal Well-Being dataset is held under SN 7925.

High rates of mental ill-health in postgraduate researchers (PGRs) represent a significant barrier to life satisfaction and academic success. Nevertheless, there is little knowledge about the extent and origins of mental health problems of PGRs in the UK. The current study addresses this gap by assessing investigating the prevalence and provenance of anxiety, depression, sleep problems, subjective mental wellbeing, and suicide behaviours of PGRs in the UK. An online survey (N=479) was used to measure the mental health outcomes and assess their relationship with influence of demographic, trait and academic variables, and social support. We found a high prevalence of mental ill-health and low levels of wellbeing in the current sample. Factors associated with poorer outcomes were female and non-binary gender, non-heterosexual identity, maladaptive perfectionism, workaholism and being in the 5th year of study or above. Resilience, adaptive perfectionism, higher levels of social support and positive evaluations of progress and preparation, departmental climate, and supervisory relationship were associated with more positive outcomes. The current findings contribute new knowledge about the prevalence of mental health symptoms in PGRs in the UK, implying that institutional efforts to improve PGR wellbeing should include strategies to promote equality, diversity, resilience, integration and work-life balance of PGRs.

Estimates of personal well–being from the annual Annual Population Survey (APS) Personal Well–being dataset.