ONS Publishes Fresh UK Well-Being Data on Life Satisfaction and Anxiety

The Office for National Statistics has released its latest quarterly personal well-being statistics, tracking how people across the UK rate their life satisfaction, happiness and anxiety on a scored scale.

The ONS has posted updated quarterly personal well-being figures covering the UK, measuring four self-reported indicators — life satisfaction, the sense that things done in life are worthwhile, happiness yesterday, and anxiety yesterday — each scored on a 0 to 10 scale. The data run from Quarter 2 of 2011 through to at least Quarter 1 of 2025, with the most recent statistical bulletins published in February 2026 and May 2026. Both non-seasonally adjusted and seasonally adjusted versions are provided, the latter stripping out regular seasonal swings — such as the well-documented dip in reported happiness during winter months — to make quarter-on-quarter comparisons more meaningful.

The figures matter for Kent because, while the quarterly release covers the UK as a whole, ONS also publishes annual personal well-being estimates broken down to local authority level — including Kent County Council and Medway Council separately. That means bodies such as the NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board can set local health and well-being strategies against a verified national baseline, and Kent’s district councils can see how their areas compare with South East and UK averages on measures like anxiety and life satisfaction.

Not everyone treats the data uncritically. Some analysts point out that a single 0–10 question struggles to capture the full complexity of mental health, and that headline averages can obscure structural pressures — housing costs, insecure work, income inequality — that bear heavily on specific groups. ONS addresses these concerns through detailed methodology guidance and publishes confidence intervals alongside every estimate, acknowledging that all figures carry sampling variability.

The series carries National Statistics status, meaning it meets the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics on quality, trustworthiness and value. Businesses, employers and civil society groups across Kent use comparable well-being data to support workplace initiatives and make the case for targeted local services.