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.

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.

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.

This report presents findings from the third (wave 3) in a series of follow up reports to the 2017 Mental Health of Children and Young People (MHCYP) survey, conducted in 2022. The sample includes 2,866 of the children and young people who took part in the MHCYP 2017 survey. The mental health of children and young people aged 7 to 24 years living in England in 2022 is examined, as well as their household circumstances, and their experiences of education, employment and services and of life in their families and communities. Comparisons are made with 2017, 2020 (wave 1) and 2021 (wave 2), where possible, to monitor changes over time.

The latest data for the measures of children’s well-being, complementing the UK Measures of National Well-being.

According to a 2023 survey, three-quarters of adults in the UK believed that technology can play a role in supporting health management. Although seven-in-ten thought the collection of personal information is inevitable these days, a similar share believed that anonymity is critical when it comes to health information, regardless of what purpose the companies have.

In 2023, 54 percent of organizations in the United Kingdom who were taking active steps to improve employee health and well-being reported that this had a large focus on mental health, with a further 37 percent reporting that they had moderately focused on mental health. Additionally, 27 percent of organizations reported a large focus on 'good work', which involved programs such as promoting a healthy work-life balance.

In 2022, many young people in the United Kingdom and the United States said they were likely to buy mental health and wellbeing focused products. For example, around seven in 10 surveyed consumers of the Gen Z and millennial variety said they were likely to buy such goods that year. According to the survey, boomers were least likely to buy items for their mental health or wellbeing in 2022 out of all generations.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has published the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) quarterly data update for May 2022.

The data is presented in an interactive tool that allows users to view it in a user-friendly format. The data tool also provides links to further supporting information, to aid understanding of public health in a local population.

18 indicators have been updated in this release:

• healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy at birth and at 65
• 7 indicators from the health improvement domain including conception rates in teenagers, percentage of looked after children whose emotional wellbeing is a cause for concern, and percentage of physically active adults
• 4 indicators from the health protection domain including the fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution (new method), population vaccination coverage for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage for two doses (females 13 to 14 years old) and population vaccination coverage - Meningococcal ACWY conjugate vaccine (MenACWY) (14 to 15 years)
• 5 indicators from the healthcare and premature mortality domain including emergency readmissions within 30 days of discharge from hospital and preventable sight loss

See links to indicators updated document for full details of what’s in this update.

View previous Public Health Outcomes Framework data tool updates.

The Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys (MHCYP) series provides data about the mental health of young people living in Great Britain.

The MHCYP was first carried out in 1999, capturing information on 5 to 15-year-olds. It was conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of the Department of Health (now known as the Department of Health and Social Care, or DHSC), The Scottish Health Executive and the National Assembly for Wales. The following survey in the series was conducted in 2002 and focused on children looked after by their local authority. The third survey was conducted in 2004 and collected information from 5 to 16-year-olds. Follow-ups to this survey were conducted after 6 months and again after 3 years.

NHS Digital commissioned the 2017 survey on behalf of the DHSC. It collected information on 2 to 19-year-olds living in England. The survey was carried out by a consortium led by NatCen Social Research, which included the ONS and Youth In Mind.

The MHCYP 2020 survey was a Wave 1 follow-up to the 2017 survey and was conducted under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020, as directed by the then Secretary of State for Health. The Wave 2 follow-up was conducted in 2021.

Further information can be found on the NHS Digital Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys webpage.

A similar series covering adults, the Adult Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity, is also commissioned by NHS Digital.

The Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2021: Special Licence Access (MHCYP) is the second in a series of follow-up surveys to the MHCYP 2017 survey (see SN 8467). The 2021 MHCYP was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and commissioned by NHS England. The survey was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen Social Research), the Office for National Statistics, the University of Cambridge and the University of Exeter.

The MHCYP surveys provide England's Official Statistics on trends in child mental health. The MHCYP 2017 was conducted face-to-face and involved data collection from a random sample of children and young people (aged 2 to 19 years). MHCYP 2017 participants who agreed to be re-contacted for future research were invited to take part in the MHCYP 2020 follow-up survey. In the 2020 survey, participants were asked to confirm that they were happy to continue to be re-contacted for future research. Therefore, the achieved MHCYP 2021 sample for this (Wave 2) follow-up was based on 3,667 children and young people (now aged 6 to 23 years) who took part in MHCYP 2017.

The three main aims of MHCYP 2021 were:

• to compare mental health between 2017 and 2020 - the likelihood of a mental disorder was assessed against completion of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in both years;
• to describe life during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• to present more detailed data on the mental health, circumstances and experiences of children and young people by ethnic group during the COVID-19 pandemic (where sample sizes allow).

• to provide annual data about the nation’s health;
• to estimate the proportion of people in England with specified health conditions;
• to estimate the prevalence of certain risk factors associated with these conditions;
• to examine differences between population subgroups in their likelihood of having specific conditions or risk factors;
• to assess the frequency with which particular combinations of risk factors are found, and which groups these combinations most commonly occur;
• to monitor progress towards selected health targets
• since 1995, to measure the height of children at different ages, replacing the National Study of Health and Growth;
• since 1995, monitor the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children.

The survey includes a number of core questions every year but also focuses on different health issues at each wave. Topics are revisited at appropriate intervals in order to monitor change.

Further information about the series may be found on the NHS Digital Health Survey for England; health, social care and lifestyles webpage, the NatCen Social Research NatCen Health Survey for England webpage and the University College London Health and Social Surveys Research Group UCL Health Survey for England webpage.

Changes to the HSE from 2015:
Users should note that from 2015 survey onwards, only the individual data file is available under standard End User Licence (EUL). The household data file is now only included in the Special Licence (SL) version, released from 2015 onwards. In addition, the SL individual file contains all the variables included in the HSE EUL dataset, plus others, including variables removed from the EUL version after the NHS Digital disclosure review. The SL HSE is subject to more restrictive access conditions than the EUL version (see Access information). Users are advised to obtain the EUL version to see if it meets their needs before considering an application for the SL version.

COVID-19 and the HSE:
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HSE 2020 survey was stopped in March 2020 and never re-started. There was no publication that year. The survey resumed in 2021, albeit with an amended methodology. The full HSE resumed in 2022, with an extended fieldwork period. Due to this, the decision was taken not to progress with the 2023 survey, to maximise the 2022 survey response and enable more robust reporting of data. See the NHS Digital Health Survey for England - Health, social care and lifestyles webpage for more details.

The HSE 2007 was designed to provide data at both national and regional level about the population living in private households in England. The sample comprised two components; the core (general population) sample and a boost sample of children aged 2-15. The core sample was designed to be representative of the population living in private households in England and should be used for analyses at the national level.

For the HSE core sample, all adults aged 16 years or older at each household were selected for the interview (up to a maximum of ten adults). However, a limit of two was placed on the number of interviews carried out with children aged 0-15. For households with three or more children, interviewers selected two children at random. At boost addresses interviewers screened for households containing at least one child aged 2-15 years. For households which included eligible children, up to two were selected by the interviewer for inclusion in the survey. Interviewing was conducted throughout the year to take account of seasonal differences.

For the second edition (April 2010), three new children's Body Mass Index (BMI) variables have been added to the individual data file (bmicat1, bmicat2, bmicat3). The original variables (bmicut1, bmicut2, bmicut3) are unreliable and should not be used. Further information is available in the documentation and on the Information Centre for Health and Social Care Health Survey for England web page.

In a survey carried out in March 2020, 51 percent of young people in the United Kingdom (UK) reported that the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the resulting public health measures have made their mental health a bit worse. Furthermore, 32 percent say the impact of the coronavirus crisis has made their mental health much worse, while only seven percent state that their mental health has improved in this time. The number of current coronavirus cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Contains all the current domains and measures of national well-being for young people. As well as providing the latest data for each measure, where available a time series of data are also presented along with useful links to data sources and other websites which may be of interest.

The data provided here comes grouped by the indicator domain: Hospital admissions for Drug Use, Obesity and Smoking to 2022/23. Note: Obesity admissions for 2022/23 include measures where OPCS codes have been aligned with the National Obesity Audit. Note: There has been a methodology change for hospital admissions attributable to smoking and we have used this methodology to back date the time series within this publication. Note: Alcohol data is available from OHID (please see link below). Prescriptions covering Alcohol, Obesity and Smoking to 2022/23. Affordability and expenditure covering Alcohol and Smoking to 2023. Unchanged in this release but to be updated during 2024: Deaths covering Smoking only to 2019.

This statistic displays the average scores and personal well-being measures of children in the United Kingdom in 2018, by different aspects of life. As data shows, children are most happy in average with their family relationships and least happy with their appearance, school and future.

In 2023, 75 percent of organizations in the United Kingdom (UK) reported they had in place an employee assistance program to help manage their employees' mental health. Furthermore, 66 percent of organizations said they provide support through phased return to work and/or other reasonable adjustments.

This publication contains the official statistics about uses of the Mental Health Act(1) ('the Act') in England during 2018-19. Under the Act, people with a mental disorder may be formally detained in hospital (or 'sectioned') in the interests of their own health or safety, or for the protection of other people. They can also be treated in the community but subject to recall to hospital for assessment and/or treatment under a Community Treatment Order (CTO). In 2016-17, the way we source and produce these statistics changed. Previously these statistics were produced from the KP90 aggregate data collection. They are now primarily produced from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). The MHSDS provides a much richer data source for these statistics, allowing for new insights into uses of the Act. However, some providers that make use of the Act are not yet submitting data to the MHSDS, or submitting incomplete data. Improvements in data quality have been made over the past year. NHS Digital is working with partners to ensure that all providers are submitting complete data and this publication includes guidance on interpreting these statistics. Footnotes (1) The Mental Health Act 1983 as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007 and other legislation.