The Office for National Statistics (ONS), commissioned by the government to measure “national wellbeing” beyond economic indicators like GDP, has now published its first results.
The results published this week show that teenagers and those above retirement age are the happiest, while people who are married, have jobs and own their own homes are most likely to be satisfied with their life.
A total of three-quarters of respondents aged 16 and over rated their life satisfaction as 7 on a scale of 0 to 10, while 45% of the unemployed gave a satisfaction level below 7.
Since April 2011 the Integrated Household Survey has been asking Britons how satisfied they are with their lives, whether they think the things they do are worthwhile, how happy they feel and how anxious they are.
The ONS has published a paper in response to these latest results outlining the areas on which it will focus to arrive at a complete assessment of national wellbeing.
Programme Director for the ONS programme, Glenn Everett, commented: “Understanding people’s views of wellbeing is an important addition to existing official statistics and has potential uses in the policy-making process and to aid other decision-making.”
