If you live in England, you are marginally happier this year than last, but the rest of the country is more miserable, according to new research.
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Wellbeing is tracked by the Office of National Statistics as a way of measuring how happy, satisfied and worthwhile everyone feels.
The report for the year ending July 2017 is the first full year following the momentous Brexit referendum in June 2016.
The ONS says average ratings of life satisfaction, feeling that the things we do in life are worthwhile and happiness increased slightly, buoyed by a slight rise across England.
Anxiety ratings remained the same.
Wellbeing ratings
“Today’s figures, the first to be based on a full year of data since the EU referendum, show small increases in how people in the UK rate their life satisfaction, happiness and feelings that the things they do in life are worthwhile. The improvements were driven by England – the only country where quality of life ratings got better over the last year,” said Matthew Steel from the Office for National Statistics.
The ratings for each category were:
- 7 out of 10 for life satisfaction
- 9 out of 10 for feeling that what you do in life is worthwhile
- 5 out of 10 for happiness yesterday
- 9 out of 10 for anxiety yesterday
“Between the years ending June 2016 and 2017, there have been statistically significant improvements in average ratings of life satisfaction, feeling that the things we do are worthwhile and happiness for the UK overall. There was no change in average ratings of anxiety,” says the ONS report.
Factors impacting happiness
More people reported high levels of life satisfaction, worthwhile and happiness in the year ending June 2017 compared with the previous year.
“Between the years ending June 2016 and 2017, improvements in life satisfaction, worthwhile and happiness ratings in the UK were driven by England, where average ratings improved across all three measures. England also had an increase in the proportion of respondents reporting very high levels of personal well-being across each of these measures. No changes in reported personal well-being were found in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland,” said the report.
The ONS explained several factors impact the feeling of satisfaction and well-being, especially job satisfaction, health, money and relationships.
Beyond that, political issues such as Brexit, economic uncertainty and the threat of terrorism were voiced by some people.
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