Analysis of Experimental Subjective Wellbeing Data from the Annual Population Survey, April to September 2011

The report presents initial estimates of subjective well-being from six months of the Annual Population Survey (APS) carried out between April and September 2011 and are based on a sample of 80,000 adults aged 16 and over from across the UK, including 9,000 respondents in Wales.

Four subjective well-being questions were drawn from established research and academic advice. These questions were introduced on the APS in April 2011:

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

Well-being data from these questions is classed as ‘experimental’ to allow for user feedback at an early stage and for potential refinement and development of the questions as required.

The key results for Wales are:

• When asked, ‘Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?’ the majority (75.1 per cent) of adults in Wales were estimated to have a rating of 7 out of 10 or more. However, 7.3 per cent reported that their life satisfaction was less than 5 out of 10. These results were similar to the results for the UK as a whole (75.5 and 7.0 per cent respectively).
• When asked, ‘Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?’ the majority (79.0 per cent) of adults in Wales were estimated to have a rating of 7 out of 10 or more. Only 5.2 per cent of adults gave a rating of less than 5 out of 10. These results were similar to the results for the UK as a whole (79.5 and 5.1 per cent respectively).
• When asked, ‘Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?’ the majority (72.0 per cent) of adults in Wales were estimated to have a rating of 7 out of 10 however 11.3 per cent of people gave ratings of less than 5 out of 10. These results were similar to the results for the UK as a whole (71.3 and 10.9 per cent respectively).
• When asked, ‘Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?’ the majority of adults in Wales (59.6) reported a low level of anxiety (between 0 and 3) whilst 22.1 per cent reported an anxiety rating of between 6 and 10. These results were similar to the UK as a whole (59.6 and 22.3 per cent respectively).

Further information

Office for National Statistics website: Analysis of experimental subjective well-being data from the APS

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 6023
E-mail: stats.popcensus@wales.gsi.gov.uk

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