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.

In 2023, ** 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 ** percent reporting that they had moderately focused on mental health. Additionally, ** 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 ***** 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 latest data for the measures of children’s well-being, complementing the UK Measures of National Well-being.

In the United Kingdom (UK), the youth index survey showed that the share of young people who were happy and confident about their emotional well-being has decreased from 2009 to 2024. In 2024, ** percent of the respondents were confident about their emotional health and ** percent were happy with their emotional health, compared to ** and ** percent who were confident and happy respectively in 2009.

Average (mean) rating for 'Life Satisfaction' by County and Unitary Authority in the First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Wellbeing survey, April 2011 - March 2012.

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.

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 ‘life satisfaction’ 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.

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.

As of 2023, over ** percent of respondents in the United Kingdom used online searches to access reliable health information. Furthermore, over a ***** of the surveyed public used wearable tech or apps to monitor their health information.

This is the second (wave 2) in a series of follow up reports to the Mental Health and Young People Survey (MHCYP) 2017, exploring the mental health of children and young people in February/March 2021, during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and changes since 2017. Experiences of family life, education, and services during the COVID-19 pandemic are also examined. The sample for the Mental Health Survey for Children and Young People, 2021 (MHCYP 2021), wave 2 follow up was based on 3,667 children and young people who took part in the MHCYP 2017 survey, with both surveys also drawing on information collected from parents. Cross-sectional analyses are presented, addressing three primary aims: Aim 1: Comparing mental health between 2017 and 2021 – the likelihood of a mental disorder has been assessed against completion of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in both years in Topic 1 by various demographics. Aim 2: Describing life during the COVID-19 pandemic - Topic 2 examines the circumstances and experiences of children and young people in February/March 2021 and the preceding months, covering: COVID-19 infection and symptoms. Feelings about social media use. Family connectedness. Family functioning. Education, including missed days of schooling, access to resources, and support for those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Changes in circumstances. How lockdown and restrictions have affected children and young people’s lives. Seeking help for mental health concerns. Aim 3: Present more detailed data on the mental health, circumstances and experiences of children and young people by ethnic group during the coronavirus pandemic (where sample sizes allow). The data is broken down by gender and age bands of 6 to 10 year olds and 11 to 16 year olds for all categories, and 17 to 22 years old for certain categories where a time series is available, as well as by whether a child is unlikely to have a mental health disorder, possibly has a mental health disorder and probably has a mental health disorder. This study was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, commissioned by NHS Digital, and carried out by the Office for National Statistics, the National Centre for Social Research, University of Cambridge and University of Exeter.

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.

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.

The surge in academic research and increased media spotlight on the toll that illness and injury can take on businesses has boosted wellness services. Companies have come to appreciate the importance of corporate wellness services in trimming down these cost, saving money on an unhealthy workforce. More and more businesses have been investing in wellness services in recent years. This growing trend has been propelled by a drop in the UK unemployment rate during the same period. Massive layoffs in the financial services sector since Brexit, sluggish demand from public-sector entities, and stiff competition from gyms and in-house services have somewhat stifled growth. On top of that, the COVID-19 outbreak significantly impacted revenue in 2020-21. Despite some of these challenges, the industry revenue is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 1.4% over the five years through 2024-25 to £679.2 million. The COVID-19 outbreak threw a spanner in the works, causing revenue to contract significantly by 9% in 2020-21. Factors such as rising unemployment, reduced employer confidence, and tight corporate budgets dented the demand for wellness services. The shift to remote work since the outbreak in 2020 continues to be a challenge to services in unprecedented ways. The corporate wellness industry has rebounded, with an anticipated 5.0% growth rate in 2024-25 and has a bright future ahead. However, poor economic conditions, including high inflation in the three years through 2024-25, have caused businesses to cut their spending budgets and hamper industry demand. The sector is expected to see a compound annual growth rate of 5.4% over the five years through 2029-30 to £885 million. Higher levels of health consciousness and efforts by businesses to enhance productivity by reducing the costs of poor health, and growth in the online delivery of industry services will boost demand. Britain's ageing workforce and greater emphasis on tacking mental health problems will aid growth. However, corporate budgets are constrained in the short term due to macroeconomic headwinds, limiting revenue growth. Profit will widen over the coming period.

What About YOUth? 2014 (WAY 2014) is a newly-established survey designed to collect robust local authority (LA) level data on a range of health behaviours amongst 15 year-olds. A report was published on 4th August 2015 on just the smoking questions. This report contains information on all the subject areas covered in the survey as well as repeating the data from the smoking questions. The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) was commissioned by the Department of Health to run the survey in direct response to the Children and Young People's Health Outcomes Forum. This Forum identified gaps in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) and other key health behaviour measures relating to young people. HSCIC contracted Ipsos MORI to carry out the survey. WAY 2014 is the first survey to be conducted of its kind and it is hoped that the survey will be repeated in order to form a time series of comparable data on a range of indicators for 15 year-olds across England. Data has been collected on general health, diet, use of free time, physical activity, smoking, drinking, emotional wellbeing, drugs and bullying.

This short summary article looks at estimates of subjective well-being for different ethnic groups by sex.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: Supporting material

Language: English

Alternative title: Working Paper: Measuring Subjective Wellbeing in the UK