The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released its latest findings regarding wellbeing in the UK – which looks at “estimates of life satisfaction, feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile, happiness and anxiety at the UK, country, regional, county and local authority level.”

The ONS have been carrying out the survey since 2011, asking personal well-being questions to adults aged 16 years and over in the UK.

To better understand how they feel about their lives the survey asks the following questions:

• 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?

Respondents are asked to evaluate, on a scale of 0 to 10, “how satisfied they are with their life overall, whether they feel they have meaning and purpose in their life, and about their emotions (happiness and anxiety) during a particular period.”

The survey found that between April 2020 and March 2021 average ratings of wellbeing deteriorated across all indicators. This was a continued trend which was seen across most indicators in the previous period but this was the first period to take place entirely during the coronavirus pandemic In fact, results in this period showed the greatest annual declines in personal well-being in the UK since the survey started. Personal well-being for life satisfaction had a 0.27 point decline, anxiety a 0.26 point increase, happiness a 0.17 point decline and feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile a 0.15 point decline.

Commenting on the findings, HR specialist XpertHR described them as “bleak” but put the decline down to the enduring effects of the coronavirus crisis.