trust and wellbeing · the national record
Personal wellbeing across the UK
How people rate their own lives, in every part of the UK, from the ONS personal wellbeing estimates for the year ending March 2023, the latest available at local authority level. People are asked to score four things out of ten: life satisfaction, feeling that what they do is worthwhile, happiness yesterday and anxiety yesterday. This page shows the national picture, how the four nations compare, where people rate their lives highest and lowest, and where West Lothian sits.
How to read this
These are the Office for National Statistics personal wellbeing estimates, from the Annual Population Survey. Adults score each measure from 0 to 10. For life satisfaction, worthwhile and happiness a higher score is better; for anxiety a lower score is better. Figures are mean scores for each area in the year ending March 2023.
Computed from the ONS Personal wellbeing estimates by local authority, year ending March 2023 (latest local authority release, version 4). United Kingdom, all four nations. Mean scores out of 10.
The national picture
Most rate their lives around seven and a half out of ten
Across the UK, adults rated their life satisfaction at 7.45 out of 10 on average in the year ending March 2023, feeling that what they do is worthwhile at 7.73, and happiness the day before at 7.39. Anxiety, where a lower score is better, averaged 3.23. The averages have held broadly steady for years, but they hide wide differences between places and a clear gap between the four nations.
Across the four nations
Northern Ireland highest, Wales lowest
Northern Ireland consistently reports the highest wellbeing of the four nations, with life satisfaction at 7.63 out of 10 and the lowest anxiety at 2.91. Wales reports the lowest life satisfaction at 7.4. England and Scotland sit close to the UK average of 7.45.
Mean life satisfaction out of 10, year ending March 2023. Source: ONS.
Place matters
From under six and a half to over eight
Life satisfaction is the headline measure, and it ranges widely by area. Among local authorities it runs from 6.46 out of 10 in Cambridge to 8.24 in Na h-Eileanan Siar. Remote and rural areas tend to rate their lives highest; some city and university areas rate lowest, a pattern seen across many years of the survey.
Highest scores
Lowest scores
Mean life satisfaction out of 10 by local authority, year ending March 2023. Life satisfaction is shown because it is the most robust of the four measures at local level. The anxiety measure swings more between years in small areas, so single year anxiety extremes are not ranked here. Source: ONS.
Close to home
West Lothian
West Lothian sits close to the UK average. Its residents rated life satisfaction at 7.38 out of 10 in the year ending March 2023, just below the UK figure of 7.45, with anxiety at 3.59, a little above the UK average of 3.23. Worthwhile was 7.46 and happiness 7.25.
Questions this raises
For wellbeing and policy
- 1.
The four measures have barely moved for years. What would actually shift how people rate their own lives?
- 2.
Northern Ireland reports the highest wellbeing and the lowest anxiety of the four nations, year after year. What lies behind that gap?
- 3.
Some city and university areas report the lowest life satisfaction. How much is that the population who live there rather than the place itself?
- 4.
Wellbeing is now measured nationally every year, but the local authority picture is only updated occasionally. Should the local data be as current as the headline economic figures?
Sources & method
Data provenance
- Personal wellbeing estimates by local authority, ONS ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
Caveats & data notes
- Personal wellbeing is self reported. Adults score each measure from 0 to 10 in the Annual Population Survey. A higher score is better for life satisfaction, worthwhile and happiness; a lower score is better for anxiety.
- Figures are for the year ending March 2023, the latest available at local authority level. The ONS publishes the national picture more often than the local one, so the area figures are less current than some other indicators on this site.
- Local estimates carry confidence intervals and small areas are less precise. Anxiety varies most between years in small areas, so single year anxiety extremes are treated with caution and not ranked here.
- Ten local authorities are not shown because their sample was too small to publish.
- West Lothian is identified by its official area code (S12000040).
- Source: ONS personal wellbeing estimates by local authority, year ending March 2023.
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