Wellbeing in UK improved but still below pre-pandemic levels – survey
It comes after the biggest deterioration in all wellbeing scores in the year ending March 2021.
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Your support makes all the difference.Personal wellbeing in the UK has improved but still remains below pre-pandemic levels, a survey suggests.
Average scores for anxiety, life satisfaction and happiness in the year ending March 2022 showed the largest year-on-year improvements since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) started measuring wellbeing.
It comes after the biggest deterioration in all wellbeing scores in the year ending March 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The results of the survey are based on scores collected from a sample of people aged 16 and over.
Participants were asked to rank their levels of wellbeing on a scale from 0 and 10 where 0 is “not at all” and 10 is “completely”.
They were asked about how satisfied they are with their life, to what extent they feel that things they do are worthwhile, and how happy and anxious they felt yesterday.
The average ratings improved across all four measures when compared with the previous year ending March 2021.
The average ratings were 7.54 out of 10 for life satisfaction (7.39 in the previous year), 7.77 out of 10 for feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile (7.71 in the previous year), 7.45 out of 10 for happiness yesterday (7.32 in the previous year) and 3.12 out of 10 for anxiety yesterday (3.31 in the previous year).
For anxiety, the most commonly reported response was 0 out of 10 (26.6%), indicating that over a quarter of adults were not at all anxious in the previous day.
The ONS said that despite improvements in the latest year, average ratings for all measures of personal wellbeing are still below pre-pandemic levels (the year ending March 2019).
Between the year ending March 2012 and the year ending March 2019, average ratings of life satisfaction, feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile and happiness generally improved year-on-year.
The ONS said average ratings of anxiety declined (improved) between the year ending March 2012 and the year ending March 2015, before remaining relatively stable until the year ending March 2019.