National statistics

Chapter 6: Well-being and loneliness

Published 14 December 2023

Applies to England

Introduction

This chapter begins by presenting well-being of respondents using four measures of personal well-being. It then goes on to discuss loneliness with an emphasis on pre-pandemic comparisons.

For an introduction and summary of main findings in this report as a whole, please see the Introduction and Key Findings page.

Well-being

In the EHS, well-being is measured using the following four measures of personal well-being:

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? Referred to as ‘life satisfaction’

• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile? Referred to as ‘life is worthwhile’

• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? Referred to as ‘happiness’

• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday? Referred to as ‘anxiety’

For most questions, respondents are asked to give their answers on a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’. These questions have been included in the EHS since 2013-14.

These questions are the standard well-being questions developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the Measuring National Well-being Programme which aims to produce accepted and trusted measures on well-being in the UK. See here for further information: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing.

Personal well-being scores varied by tenure. In 2022-23, owner occupiers had a higher score for life satisfaction (7.8), thinking life is worthwhile (8.0), happiness (7.7), and lower scores for anxiety (2.8), than the private rented sector (7.3; 7.7; 7.2; 3.4) and social rented sector (6.7; 7.3; 6.9; 3.6), Annex Table 6.1 and Figure 6.1.

Among owner occupiers in 2022-23, outright owners showed higher scores than mortgagors for life satisfaction (7.9 compared with 7.6), thinking life is worthwhile (8.1 compared with 7.9) and happiness (7.9 compared with 7.5), and lower scores for anxiety (2.7 compared with 3.1).

In comparison to 2021-22, fewer social renters believed their lives were worthwhile in 2022-23 (7.4 in 2021-22, 7.3 in 2022-23); this was similar when looking at life satisfaction (7.0 in 2021-22, 6.7 in 2022-23).

Figure 6.1: Well-being, by tenure, 2022-23

^{Base: all household reference person
Note: underlying data are presented in Annex Table 6.1
Source: English Housing survey, full household sample}

These findings may suggest there is a relationship between well-being and tenure, though could also be mediated by related factors, such as income. For example, social renters were more likely to be concentrated in the lowest two income quintiles, than owner occupiers or private renters, as well as being the tenure with the highest proportion of HRPs who are economically inactive, Annex Table 1.3.

When comparing current levels to those before COVID-19 in 2019-20, personal well-being has decreased. Fewer households believe their life is satisfactory (7.7 in 2019-20, 7.5 in 2022-23) and worthwhile (7.9 in 2019-20, 7.8 in 2022-23), anxiety has risen (2.7 in 2019-20, 3.1 in 2022-23), and happiness has fallen (7.6 in 2019-20. 7.5 in 2022-23), Annex Table 6.1.

Loneliness

Loneliness is not measured on a scale of 0 to 10, and instead by asking respondents how often they feel lonely. Here, we focus on those who say they are lonely often or always. This question was included in the EHS for the first time in 2019-20.

This loneliness question is from the National Indicators of Loneliness and is a standard question used to measure loneliness. See here for further information: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-measures-of-loneliness.

In 2022-23, owner occupiers reported being less likely to often or always feel lonely (5%) in comparison to the private rented sector (7%). The social rented sector were much more likely than both to feel lonely often or always (15%), Annex Table 6.2.

Compared to measurements taken before the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a general increase in households being more likely to feel often or always lonely compared to beforehand, across all tenures, Figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2: Loneliness in England, 2019 – 2022

^{Base: all household reference person
Note: underlying data are presented in Annex Table 6.2
Source: English Housing survey, full household sample}

Technical notes and glossary

For technical information regarding caveats in this report, please see the technical note.

For a detailed glossary of terms please see the glossary.