{"id":194473,"date":"2025-06-18T13:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T13:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194473\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T13:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T13:20:10","slug":"wellbeing-report-scots-happier-than-those-in-england-and-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194473\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellbeing Report: Scots ‘happier than those in England and Wales’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The 2025 UK Wellbeing Report estimates that seven\u00a0million adults across the UK are\u00a0 living in happiness poverty.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n The report, compiled by the World Wellbeing Movement, defines the Happiness Poverty Line as those who rate their satisfaction with life at 5 or below on the 0-10 scale reported by the ONS.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n This proportion is roughly equivalent to those who live in absolute income poverty in the UK, which led the movment to coin the term last year.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n At 13%, Scots were more satisfied with their lot than those in Wales, where 15% were said to be below the line, but not as happy as people in Northern Ireland, where the cut-off point was 12%. \u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n \"DissatisfactionDissatisfaction with life is growing in the UK (Image: David Cheskin) In England, 13.2% were described as being below the Happiness Poverty Line, a similar figure to the UK as a whole. \u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n The number of UK people living below the line is rising, according to the latest findings.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n The 2025 report estimates that an additional 650,000 UK adults \u2013 enough to fill Wembley Stadium more than seven times \u2013 have fallen below the Happiness Poverty Line compared to the previous 12 months.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n The gradual improvements in average UK wellbeing levels observed before the Covid-19 pandemic have been erased. \u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Prior to 2020, the proportion of people living below the Happiness Poverty Line was falling year on year \u2013 despite an initial recovery in 2022, that trend has since reversed.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n And the latest quarterly figures released by the ONS in May confirm that this stagnation extends into at least the last quarter of 2024.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n The World Wellbeing Movement is working alongside a cross-party group of Parliamentarians and other policy experts to better understand and address the conditions required to build better lives, and is calling for the UK Government<\/a> to put the wellbeing of people at the heart of decision-making.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Prof Lord Richard Layard, co-founder of the World Wellbeing Movement and Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: \u201cPeople are still less satisfied with their lives than before the pandemic. \u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat is a real challenge. But it is encouraging that the government\u2019s approach to spending is now \u2013 in principle \u2013 based on its impact on life satisfaction. That is what we need for the future.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n Sarah Cunningham, Managing Director of the World Wellbeing Movement, said:\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese concerning findings are a sign that too many people are struggling in their day-to-day lives. The reality of these figures, and the human faces and stories they represent, should act as a wake-up call. If we are serious about improving lives and reducing inequality, we need to put wellbeing at the heart of decision-making in public policy.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Dr Maria Cotofan, Lecturer in Economics and Policy at King\u2019s College London and author of the 2025 UK Wellbeing Report, said:\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere are already substantial differences in happiness across areas in the UK, and happiness appears to be stagnating below pre-pandemic levels, regardless of how we measure it. \u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat we don\u2019t yet understand well enough is why this is the case, but this is a crucial question for these communities.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn order to understand how to improve happiness we need better data on what matters to people in these areas. To actually improve happiness, we need decisive leadership in terms of policies that improve wellbeing.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 UK Wellbeing Report estimates that seven\u00a0million adults across the UK are\u00a0 living in happiness poverty.\u00a0 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-194473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114704575589802177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}