Overview

• The ONS has run a quarterly wellbeing survey since 2011 measuring anxiety, happiness, life satisfaction and a sense of purpose among UK adults.
• In October-December 2024, 22.6% of respondents reported high anxiety, exceeding any rate recorded between 2015 and 2019 when levels never rose above 21.3%.
• Anxiety peaked at 25.2% during the second Covid-19 wave in late 2020 and fell to a low of 21.2% in the vaccine rollout quarter of April-June 2021.
• Women experienced a 26.2% anxiety rate compared with 18.8% for men, and 50-54 year-olds recorded the highest age-group figure at 25.5%.
• Low levels of happiness (8.5%) and life satisfaction (5.3%) in the latest quarter matched those seen before the pandemic.