Review of the UK Measures of National Well-being, October 2022 to March 2023

• The Measures of National Well-being (MNW) were launched by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2011 to provide a holistic picture of progress in the UK.

• We undertook research with the public, minority groups more likely to report low personal well-being and our users and stakeholders; we also reviewed literature, other domestic and international well-being frameworks, and engaged with experts in the field.

• We have considered all feedback and made changes regarding the title of the framework, the measures themselves, the demographic and geographic breakdowns provided, and the ways in which we communicate the national well-being statistics.

• We launched the revised UK Measures of National Well-being (UK MNW) on 5 July 2023; further developments to the framework will be implemented as part of the upcoming quarterly updates in line with our UK Measures of National Well-being, current and upcoming work: July 2023 article.

• The revised UK MNW framework is made of 60 measures (an increase from 44); 22 new measures were added, one was replaced, and six existing measures were removed, with small changes also suggested for the retained existing measures.

• We will continue to publish the UK MNW on a quarterly basis, providing the latest available data for our measures in our revised UK Measures of National Well-being dashboard and associated data tables (UK Measures of National Well-being); this dashboard will incorporate commentary on all measures, replacing our Quality of life in the UK bulletin.

The Measuring National Well-being programme was launched by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in November 2010 to provide a comprehensive picture of how we are doing as individuals, as communities, and as a nation, and how sustainable this is for the future.

As part of the programme, a national debate was held which asked the public "What matters to you?", detailed in our Measuring what matters report (PDF, 1.15MB). This collected over 34,000 responses. Based on feedback from the public, additional research, and advice from a Technical Advisory Group of experts, 10 domains of national well-being were established.

These domains are:

• personal well-being

• our relationships

• health

• what we do

• where we live

• personal finance

• education and skills

• economy

• governance

• environment

The 10 domains were underpinned by 44 measures of national well-being that we regularly reported on using our UK Measures of National Well-being Dashboard, our Quality of life in the UK bulletin and our Measuring national well-being: domains and measures dataset.

Because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the updates to the MNW were paused in 2020. The routine publications restarted in August 2022. The MNW have since been published alongside our Gross domestic product (GDP) quarterly national accounts bulletins and our Climate change insights articles as part of the ONS's Beyond GDP work, detailed in our blog post.

As more than 10 years have passed since the framework was developed, we launched a review of the MNW in October 2022.

Initial research found that the 10 domains were still representative of national well-being in the UK, with the topics of these domains widely adopted in both UK and international literature. Therefore, changing the structure and naming of the domains in the framework was out of scope for this review. However, the measures available within these domains had evolved over time, along with dissemination tools available to communicate these measures.

The review aimed to ensure that the measures we report still reflect what the UK feels is important to their well-being as individuals, as communities and as a nation. We also made sure that the methods and tools we use to disseminate these measures are meeting user needs.

We undertook several stakeholder engagements and research activities as part of the review.

Launch event (3 October 2022)

During an online event, the National Statistician, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, officially launched the Review of the Measures of National Well-being (MNW). We showcased our past research into national well-being, outlined plans for the review and promoted the review among our stakeholders, their networks, and the public. The event attracted over 180 attendees from across UK government departments, local government, international organisations, academia, and the general public. The recording of the event is available via National Statistician Launch – Measures on National Well-being review event recording.

User and stakeholder feedback survey (3 October 2022 to 9 December 2022)

As part of the launch event, we opened a feedback survey aimed at users of the framework and stakeholders (interested parties who may not necessarily use the framework). We asked the respondents what matters most to national well-being and sought their views on our current measures and dissemination tools.

The survey ran for 10 weeks, from 3 October to 9 December 2022 (extended from 25 November). It was promoted on social media, at events with stakeholders and potential users, through emails and e-bulletins, as well as at the launch event. A total of 118 responses were submitted online and an additional two were sent to us by email. Results from the stakeholder survey can be found in the Response summary: Review of the Measures of National Well-being report, published 14 February 2023.

Public survey of what matters for well-being (12 to 23 October 2022)

Through the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN), we asked adults in Great Britain what they thought mattered most to their individual well-being and to the well-being of their community. Insights from this research can be found in our Individual and community well-being, Great Britain: October 2022 bulletin, published 6 December 2022.

Review of literature and well-being frameworks

To supplement our research, we asked respondents from the stakeholder feedback survey to share recommended reading and literature that should be considered as part of this review. This was not a systematic review. The selection of literature was informed through stakeholder feedback, expert recommendations, and purposive sampling of literature to inform exploration of topic gaps in the original national well-being framework.

As part of the literature review, we explored research into the well-being of minority groups in the UK and a range of well-being frameworks used across the UK and internationally. This included investigation of various ways in which well-being data is presented and disseminated.

Qualitative research with groups more likely to report low personal well-being (January 2023)

To ensure that we represent what matters to a variety of people in the UK, we commissioned focus groups to collect feedback from socio-demographic groups more likely to report low well-being. This research focused on people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other minority sexual orientations and gender identities (LGBT+), and Black, Black British, Black Caribbean and Black African, and Arab ethnic groups.

These groups were chosen based on the Office for National Statistics's (ONS's) research into the personal well-being of various socio-demographic sub-groups groups in the UK (detailed in our Annual Population Survey regression models dataset and the Ethnicity facts and figures website) and to complement research already being carried out by the ONS Centre for Equalities and Inclusion, such as our Gypsies' and Travellers' lived experiences, overview article and Disabled people's experiences with activities, goods and services bulletin. Results from the qualitative research can be found in our Findings from qualitative analysis of focus group discussions with LGBT+, Black, Black British, Black Caribbean and Black African, and Arab adults dataset.

Technical Advisory Group (TAG)

The review was supported by a TAG made up of topic experts from across the UK government, Devolved Administrations and third sector organisations.

Members of the TAG represented, among others:

• Cabinet Office

• Carnegie UK

• Centre for Thriving Places

• Department for Culture, Media and Sport

• Department for Education

• Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

• Department for Health and Social Care

• Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities

• Department for Transport

• Department for Work and Pensions

• Home Office

• Natural England

• NHS Digital

• Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

• Office for Health Improvement and Disparities

• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

• Scottish Government

• Sport England

• Welsh Government

• What Works Centre for Wellbeing

We held four TAG meetings (in October 2022, December 2022, February 2023, and March 2023). The role of the TAG was to provide ongoing feedback during the review and provide focused advice on specific questions and issues we presented.

We also worked with colleagues from other teams across the ONS to improve coherence and integration between the MNW and other statistics produced by the office, in line with feedback we received.

The revised title

The framework will be referred to as UK Measures of National Well-being (UK MNW). The associated publications will be titled accordingly.

The revised structure

The framework remains structured around the 10 domains of:

• personal well-being

• our relationships

• health

• what we do

• where we live

• personal finance

• education and skills

• economy

• governance

• environment

While the names of the domains have not changed, the scope and definitions of the domains were updated based on feedback to better capture and explain what matters to national well-being in the UK. They have been reviewed to ensure that they reflect the wider breadth of their coverage, particularly as new measures have been added to the framework.

Definitions of the MNW domains

Personal well-being

Personal well-being is the most direct representation of how people are doing. Measures in this domain cover people's opinions on aspects of their current well-being. 

Our relationships

People's relationships can affect their well-being outcomes, including quality of life and happiness. Measures in this domain cover the presence and quality of relationships people may have with family, friends, and the community around them. 

Health

Physical and mental health are important parts of people's personal well-being. Measures in this domain cover both objective and subjective measures of health. They also cover satisfaction with the healthcare system to capture how the nation's health is supported. 

What we do

Participation in, satisfaction with, and balance between work and leisure activities represent people's lifestyle choices. Measures in this domain cover subjective and objective measures related to work, leisure and volunteering. 

Where we live

Where people live, the quality of their local area and their community, and how they feel about it can affect personal well-being. Measures in this domain cover housing, the local environment, access to facilities, and being part of a cohesive community. 

Personal finance

How households and individuals are managing financially influences many aspects of their lives. Measures in this domain cover household income and wealth, poverty and financial inequalities, and people's opinions about their own financial situations.

Education and skills

Education and skills can determine individuals' socioeconomic outcomes. Measures in this domain cover human capital, as well as qualifications and skills. They also cover satisfaction with the education system to capture how people's education is supported. 

Economy

The economy affects the financial welfare of individuals, communities and the UK as a whole. Measures in this domain cover economic activity in the UK. They also cover consumer confidence to capture people's perceptions of the country's economic situation. 

Governance

Good governance contributes to better social and economic outcomes. Measures in this domain cover public trust and civic participation. They also cover satisfaction with the police and justice system to capture how public administration is supported. 

Environment

The natural environment is relevant to people's quality of life because it makes human life and activity possible. Measures in this domain cover aspects of climate change, the UK's natural environment and natural capital, and the effects of human activity on the environment.  

The revised measures

The revised national well-being framework now contains 60 measures (an increase from 44), which includes 22 new measures. Six of the existing measures were removed, and some changes were made to the retained existing measures.

Further detail on the revised measures is available in the UK MNW: measures metadata accompanying our UK MNW user guide.

We have published data for 52 of the 60 revised measures in July 2023. The remaining eight measures are "under development", and we aim to include them in the November 2023 update to the dashboard. Please note, five of these 52 measures are being tested to move to the Office for National Statistics's (ONS's) Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) to improve timeliness, geographic coverage or wording comparability.

In July 2023, we will produce these measures using existing data sources, and we will aim to update the sources of these five measures in November 2023. Therefore, the measure wording below reflects the framework from November 2023 onwards (but may be subject to change depending on testing).

Changes made to each measure, and why the changes were made, can be found in Section 5: Summary of feedback and how it informed the review.

Overview of revised measures

These are the revised measures of national well-being by domain, accurate as of July 2023, with new measures highlighted.

Personal well-being

• Life satisfaction: people rating their overall satisfaction with their life as low, UK.

• Worthwhile: people rating how worthwhile they feel the things they do in life are as low, UK.

• Happiness: people rating how happy they felt yesterday as low, UK.

• Feeling anxious: people rating high feelings of anxiety yesterday, UK.

• Hope for the future (new, under development).

• Fair treatment (new, under development).

Our relationships

• Satisfaction with partner relationship (presented in July 2023 release as "Unhappy relationships", existing measure currently undergoing testing for updated wording and source).

• Satisfaction with social relationships (new, under development).

• People to rely on: people who agree or strongly agree that they can rely on people in their lives if they have a serious problem, Great Britain (GB).

• Loneliness: people who feel lonely often or always, GB.

• Local community integration: people who agree or strongly agree that people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area, GB (new).

• Trust in others: people who in general trust most other people, GB.

Health

• Healthy life expectancy: healthy life expectancy at birth by sex, UK.

• Satisfaction with health (existing measure currently undergoing testing for updated wording and source).

• Physical health conditions: people reporting having cancer, cardiovascular conditions, dementia, diabetes, kidney and liver disease, chronic musculoskeletal or respiratory conditions, England (new).

• Depression or anxiety: people reporting some evidence of depression or anxiety, UK.

• Satisfaction with healthcare system: people who tend to be satisfied with the healthcare system in the UK, GB (new).

What we do

• Satisfaction with time use (new, under development).

• Satisfaction with current job (existing measure currently undergoing testing for updated wording and source).

• Time spent on unpaid work: average daily time spent on unpaid work by sex, UK (new).

• Volunteering: people who gave unpaid help to clubs, groups, charities or organisations in the last 12 months, GB.

• Engagement with arts and culture: people who took part in creative or artistic activities, or attended cultural or artistic events in the last 12 months, England.

• Sports participation: people who on average take part in "moderate plus intensity" sport or physical activity for at least 150 minutes a week, England.

• Visited nature: people who visited green and natural spaces in their free time in the last 14 days, England.

Where we live

• Satisfaction with accommodation (existing measure currently undergoing testing for updated wording and source).

• Satisfaction with local area (new, under development).

• Belonging to neighbourhood: people who agree or strongly agree that they feel like they belong to their neighbourhood, GB.

• Local connectivity: measure of ability to travel to places of value (where 100 denotes the most connected output area in 2022), (new, under development).

• Digital exclusion: people who have not used the internet in the last three months or have never used the internet, UK (new).

• Crime: incidence of personal crime, England and Wales.

• Feeling safe: people who felt fairly or very safe walking alone in their local area after dark by sex, England and Wales.

Personal finance

• Median household income: median equivalised household disposable income (in real terms), UK.

• Median household wealth: median household total wealth (including private pension wealth, in real terms), GB.

• Relative low-income households: people with household income below 60% of contemporary household median income (after housing costs), UK.

• Household income inequality: Gini coefficient for measure of income inequality (where zero means complete equality of household disposable income), UK (new).

• Gender pay gap: gross hourly median difference in pay between women and men, UK (new).

• Difficulty managing financially (existing measure currently undergoing testing for updated wording and source).

Education and skills

• NEET: young people not in education, employment or training (seasonally adjusted), UK.

• No qualifications: people aged 16 to 64 years with no qualifications, UK.

• A-level or equivalent qualifications: people aged 16 to 64 years with A-level equivalent qualifications or higher, UK (new).

• Human capital: total net present value of people's projected lifetime earnings (in real terms), UK.

• Satisfaction with skills (new, under development).

• Satisfaction with education system: people who tend to be satisfied with the education system in the UK, GB (new).

Economy

• Unemployment rate: unemployment rate among adults aged 16 years and over (seasonally adjusted), UK.

• Inflation: inflation rate (as measured by Consumer Price Index including owner occupiers' housing costs, (CPIH)), UK.

• Public sector net debt: public sector net debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (non-seasonally adjusted), UK.

• Consumer confidence (new, under development).

Governance

• Voter turnout: voter turnout in UK general elections, UK.

• Trust in UK government: people who tend to trust the UK government, GB.

• Voice: people who agree or strongly agree that they do not have any say in what the government does, GB.

• Satisfaction with police: people who tend to be satisfied with the police in the UK, GB (new).

• Satisfaction with courts and legal system: people who tend to be satisfied with the courts and legal system in the UK, GB (new).

Environment

• Greenhouse gas emissions: total greenhouse gas emissions, UK.

• Renewable energy consumption: renewable energy as a percentage of gross final energy consumption, UK.

• Household recycling: recycling rate for waste from households, UK.

• Protected areas: extent of protected areas at land and sea, UK.

• Priority species: relative abundance of priority species, UK (new).

• Air pollution: average number of days when air pollution is moderate or higher, UK (new).

• Surface water status: percentage of UK surface water bodies awarded "Good" or "High" water quality status, UK (new).

• Pro-environmental lifestyle: people who have made changes to their lifestyle to help tackle environmental issues, GB (new).

The demographic and geographic breakdowns provided

User feedback prioritised additional breakdowns to be provided for the measures. We explored availability of data to produce sub-population breakdowns by variety of demographic characteristics and geographies, such as:

• age

• sex

• disability

• ethnicity

• index of multiple deprivation

• UK country

• English regions

• local authority

These breakdowns were in line with the Inclusive Data Taskforce's recommendations for more disaggregated data. We will provide sub-population breakdowns based on age, sex, UK country and English regions for all measures (where possible) quarterly in our UK MNW data tables. We will provide further demographic breakdowns where possible in a separate release annually. This will start by adding personal characteristic breakdowns to our Personal well-being in the UK bulletin in Autumn 2023 and continue to a new annual release in Autumn 2024, presenting additional breakdowns to the residual UK MNW.

Out of the final revised measures, 28 are available for the United Kingdom overall, 25 for Great Britain, three for England and Wales and four for England only. Geographic breakdowns for the UK countries and for the nine English regions will be provided for all measures where data is available. Additionally, for the measures for which local authority estimates are produced by the data owners, links to the relevant local authority data will be included in our annual data tables.

Further detail on the geographic coverage of the revised measures is available in the UK MNW: measures metadata accompanying our UK MNW user guide.

Dissemination of national well-being statistics

The UK MNW will continue to be updated on a quarterly basis. At each quarterly release, we will update all measures for which new data became available since the last release and up to three weeks before the publication date. Further detail on the frequency of the revised measures is available in the UK MNW: measures metadata accompanying our UK MNW user guide.

Each quarterly publication will consist of an update to the UK Measures of National Well-being dashboard (latest headline estimate and commentary), as well as updated headline estimates in the UK MNW data tables, which include sub-population breakdowns by age, sex, UK country and English regions, where available.

We are also exploring options to move the publication of the dashboard to 7am, to be published alongside our Gross domestic product (GDP) quarterly national accounts bulletin.

Implementation of the recommendations for the UK MNW framework

We launched the revised UK MNW framework on 5 July 2023.

These revised measures have been published using the new UK MNW dashboard and the updated UK MNW data tables. We published data for 52 of the 60 revised measures in July 2023.

Five of these 52 measures are being tested to move to the ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) to increase timeliness, geographic coverage or wording comparability. In July 2023, we will produce these measures using existing data sources, and we will aim to update the sources of these five measures in November 2023. The remaining eight measures are still under development, and we aim to include them in the November 2023 update.

We have also published the UK MNW user guide, which provides further information on the revised framework and its background, in response to feedback for providing management information on data and measures.

Further developments to the UK MNW and the tools we use to present these statistics will be implemented alongside the quarterly updates in August 2023, November 2023 and beyond.

In the future, we will take an iterative approach to updating the framework. For example, should a new data source with wider geographic coverage become available for a measure, we will evaluate and, if appropriate, swap the measure in the framework.

The full implementation and well-being workplan based on the feedback we collected during the review is available in our UK MNW, current and upcoming work: July 2023 article.

Through the engagements and research undertaken, we collected feedback on various aspects of the Measures of National Well-being (MNW) and used it to inform our recommendations. Here, we outline the feedback for each element of the recommendation that informed our decisions.

The title

We received feedback that some users, stakeholders, and the public think that the term "well-being" relates solely to personal well-being rather than the wider concept of welfare of the nation. To improve understanding of what the framework relates to, we considered changing the title.

We asked respondents in our stakeholder survey to what extent the title "Measures of National Well-being" explains what this framework and measures relate to, and if they have suggestions for an alternative title. Around two-thirds (64%) of respondents said that the title "Measures of National Well-being" explains what the framework and measures relate to well or very well. The alternative title suggestions which we received were similar to the current title.

We also asked the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for feedback. Most TAG members who contributed were in favour of retaining the word "well-being" in the title. They stated it appropriately represents the broad scope of the framework, and that it will help preserve national and international recognition of our work. The TAG members also suggested that the general understanding of the concept of well-being is improving. However, they did highlight that "national" may mean different things to individuals, depending on where in the United Kingdom they live.

Based on the received feedback, we decided to change the title to "UK Measures of National Well-being" (UK MNW).

The structure

The structure of the 10 domains of national well-being was out of scope for this review. Initial research found these domains were still representative of national well-being in the UK, and area topics widely reflected in both UK and international well-being literature.

Based on our analysis of the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) in our Individual and community well-being bulletin and stakeholder survey in our Review of the Measures of National Well-being, we revised and updated the scope and definitions of the domains to ensure they remain comprehensive and appropriately capture and explain what matters to national well-being in the UK.

The new definitions can be found in Section 4: Recommendations following the Measures of National Well-being review. We also used this feedback to evaluate relevance of the existing measures and inform inclusion of new measures.

The measures

Our user and stakeholder survey asked respondents for direct feedback on how we measure well-being within each of the 10 domains and whether there are any measures that we should add or change. We received around 600 comments, the majority of which contained suggestions for new and additional measures. We summarised all feedback into key themes, aspects, and topics for inclusion.

Based on this user and stakeholder feedback, alongside advice from our TAG and internal Office for National Statistics (ONS) experts, we adopted the following criteria to guide the revision of the existing measures of national well-being and selection of new measures.

Conceptual gaps

When making recommendations for inclusion of new measures, we prioritised measures which addressed gaps in the existing framework and what the existing MNW cover.

Inequality and diverse life experiences

The topic of inequality and diverse life experiences of individuals in the UK were prominent in all types of feedback we received. As such, we sought to include additional measures of inequality or disparities by making either additions to the framework or changes to the original measures. These include ensuring a balance between positive and negative orientated measures.

Comparability, timeliness, and geographic coverage

A common theme of feedback from users was improved coherence and comparability across UK nations and between measures. To strengthen comparability across measures and improve timeliness and geographic coverage, several existing measures were substituted with comparable alternative measures. Additionally, when possible, we have updated the data source for several subjective measures to the OPN. Use of a common data source will allow us to standardise question formats, answer scales and data collection periods. It also allows us to ask the questions more frequently and consistently, so we can report the measures in a timelier manner.

With limited space on the OPN, we prioritised measures where existing data sources had poorer geographic coverage (as the OPN covers Great Britain (GB)) or data sources with larger time lags.

We aimed for measures to cover the UK or largest possible geography (for example, a measure covering GB would generally be preferred over a measure covering England only). Where we have used sub-UK sources, we have aimed to include a link to the relevant devolved administration data to support comparability across the UK (see the UK MNW: measures metadata accompanying our UK MNW user guide).

We wanted all measures to be available annually, with minimal possible time lag between data collection and publication. The only measure that this was not possible for was "Median household wealth", as the main and recommended source (Wealth and Assets Survey) is updated every two years. While more frequently updated national accounts measures cover some types of wealth, a Wealth and Assets Survey based metric is preferred when considering the distribution of wealth.

Measures should allow for breakdowns by age, sex, UK country and English regions where relevant and they should be presented in the data tables when available. Further demographic breakdowns, including by disability, will be published annually, starting from Autumn 2023, by extending our Personal well-being in the UK bulletin to include personal characteristics. Links to local authority estimates will be provided wherever possible to improve coverage at lower levels of geography.

Definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback

We changed measure titles and labels based on feedback that the existing descriptions were confusing or unclear. For example, the measure title "Generalised trust" was changed to "Trust in others" based on feedback from the user survey that users didn't know what the original title meant.

Feasibility

The framework itself should be feasible and realistic for us to produce quarterly updates. As a result, we aimed to limit the total number of measures in the framework to around 60 measures. We also limited the demographic breakdowns provided for measures each quarter, with additional breakdowns provided annually.

As well as these criteria, the measures needed to be in line with their original purpose to capture the well-being of us as individuals, as a community and as a nation and how sustainable our well-being is for the future.

Acknowledging that not all the criteria could be met by each of the measures, they were used to help select the most suitable and useful measures rather than as minimum requirements for inclusion. Ultimately, the decisions on individual measures were made based on the balance of their benefits and limitations and on expert feedback.

Where no changes were made to the existing measures, it is either because they already met the selection criteria or because no suitable alternative measures could be identified when the balance of benefits and limitations were considered.

Most of the measure changes have been made in July 2023. However, some changes are still under development, and we plan to include them in the November 2023 update.

Summary of measure changes

The revised MNW by domain, with information on what has changed and why.

Personal well-being

• Life satisfaction (retained, source unchanged): estimate changed from people reporting very high life satisfaction to those reporting low life satisfaction to better capture disparities in personal well-being levels and individuals at risk, based on our Measuring well-being inequality methodology (inequality and diverse life experiences).

• Worthwhile (retained, source unchanged): estimate changed from people reporting very high ratings that the things they do in life are worthwhile to those reporting low ratings that the things they do in life are worthwhile to better capture disparities in personal well-being levels and individuals at risk (inequality and diverse life experiences).

• Happiness (retained, source unchanged): estimate changed from people reporting very high happiness to those reporting low happiness to better capture disparities in personal well-being levels and individuals at risk (inequality and diverse life experiences).

• Feeling anxious (retained, source unchanged): estimate changed from people reporting very low anxiety to those reporting high anxiety to better capture disparities in personal well-being levels and individuals at risk (inequality and diverse life experiences); measure title was changed from "Anxiety" based on expert feedback to acknowledge subjective and self-reported nature of this measure, and to distinguish it from the clinically measured "Depression or anxiety" measure (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

• Hope for the future (new measure): added based on literature review and direct feedback from the user and stakeholder survey (conceptual gap).

• Fair treatment (new measure): added based on direct feedback from the user and stakeholder survey and the focus group research; being treated fairly and equally and being accepted were mentioned frequently during our focus groups (inequality and diverse life experiences) (conceptual gap).

Our relationships

• Satisfaction with partner relationship (retained, source changed): from November 2023, this measure will replace the "Unhappy relationships" measure and the source of this data will be changed from Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (USoc) to the OPN, reducing the geographic coverage from UK to GB, but improving timeliness (comparability, timeliness and geographic coverage).

• Satisfaction with social relationships (new measure): added based on feedback from the user and stakeholder survey, expert consultations and focus groups to comprehensively capture the importance of various types of private social relationships for people's well-being; this measure supplements the existing "Satisfaction with partner relationship" measure (conceptual gap).

• People to rely on (retained, source unchanged).

• Loneliness (retained, source changed): data source was changed from the Community Life Survey to the OPN to improve frequency of data updates and geographical coverage from England to GB (comparability, timeliness and geographic coverage).

• Local community integration (new measure): added based on feedback from the user and stakeholder survey and focus groups to capture social connections within local communities (inequality and diverse life experiences) (conceptual gap).

• Trust in others (retained, source unchanged): measure title was changed from "Generalised trust" based on feedback from the user survey that users didn't know what the original title meant (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

Health

• Healthy life expectancy (retained, source unchanged).

• Satisfaction with health (retained, source changed): from November 2023, the data source will change (from USoc to the OPN) consistent with the other satisfaction-based measures; using a single data source allows us to draw conclusions on changes across a number of measures, as well as improving timeliness of the estimates by reducing the time lag between data collection and publication and increasing the frequency of available new data, reducing the geographic coverage from UK to GB, but improving timeliness and consistency (and we will include devolved administration sources for measures that are not UK-wide); measure title will also change from "Health satisfaction" to "Satisfaction with health" for consistency with other satisfaction-based measures (comparability, timeliness and geographic coverage).

• Physical health conditions (new measure): added based on expert feedback and focus groups that an objective measure of the population's health should be included to supplement the subjective measure of "Satisfaction with health" to provide a more complete picture of health of people in the UK (conceptual gap).

• Depression or anxiety (retained, source unchanged).

• Satisfaction with healthcare system (new measure): added based on user and stakeholder feedback that a suite of measures around public service provision, including the healthcare system, would be valuable to the framework (conceptual gap).

What we do

• Satisfaction with time use (new measure): from November 2023, this measure will be added based on feedback that a more comprehensive measure of satisfaction with different ways people spent their time, not only their leisure time but including work-life balance, would be preferred (conceptual gap).

• Satisfaction with current job (retained, source changed): from November 2023, the data source will be changed (from USoc to the OPN) for consistency with the other satisfaction-based measures; this will reduce the geographic coverage from UK to GB, but using a single data source will allow for improved comparisons across metrics as well as improving timeliness of the estimates by reducing the time lag between data collection and publication and increasing the frequency of new available data; measure title will also change from "Job satisfaction" to "Satisfaction with current job" for consistency with other satisfaction-based measures (comparability, timeliness and geographic coverage).

• Time spent on unpaid work (new measure): added based on suggestions submitted through the user and stakeholder survey; this addition helps provide a more comprehensive picture of time use and time spent on work in the UK and captures work-life balance (inequality and diverse life experiences) (conceptual gap).

• Volunteering (retained, source unchanged): feedback received in the user survey stated that stakeholders didn't want as great an emphasis on volunteering through it being included in two measures; as such, we will present incidence of volunteering in the dashboard, under the "Volunteering" measure, and incidence and frequency in the data tables (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

• Engagement with arts and culture (retained, source unchanged): the measure label was changed from "People who engaged with the arts in person in the last 12 months" to "People who took part in creative or artistic activities, or attended cultural or artistic events in the last 12 months" to better capture the activities covered by this measure; measure title was changed from "Arts and culture participation" to better represent the measure (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

• Sports participation (retained, source unchanged).

• Visited nature (retained, source unchanged): this measure was moved from the "Where we live" domain to the "What we do" domain as the measure concerns the activity of visiting green and natural spaces rather than presence of such spaces in a local area; measure title was changed from "Accessing natural environment" to better represent the measure (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

Where we live

• Satisfaction with accommodation (retained, source changed): from November 2023, data source will change (from the English Housing Survey to the OPN) for consistency with the other satisfaction-based measures; using a single data source allows us to draw conclusions on changes in the estimates across a number of measures, as well as improving the geographical coverage from England to Great Britain and frequency of data updates from once to twice a year (comparability, timeliness and geographic coverage).

• Satisfaction with local area (new measure): added based on suggestions submitted through the user and stakeholder survey around measures of the quality of and satisfaction with the local area and services (conceptual gap).

• Belonging to neighbourhood (retained, source unchanged).

• Local connectivity (replaced, source changed): this measure will replace the existing "Access to key services" measure for which data has been discontinued; this substitute was made in line with the recommendation from the data owner (Department for Transport); as the data is not available until after July, the measure will be updated in the dashboard from November 2023 (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

• Digital exclusion (new measure): added based on suggestions submitted through the user and stakeholder survey around use of the internet in modern society, access to internet, digital exclusion and inequalities in this respect (inequality and diverse life experiences) (conceptual gap).

• Crime (retained, source unchanged).

• Feeling safe (retained, source unchanged).

Personal finance

• Median household income (retained, source unchanged).

• Median household wealth (retained, source unchanged): changed to report real terms (rather than nominal) to adjust for inflation based on expert feedback.

• Relative low-income households (retained, source unchanged): changed from reporting low-income households based on assessment before accounting for housing cost to estimates calculated with consideration for the housing cost to recognise the financial pressures housing may put on households (inequality and diverse life experiences).

• Household income inequality (new measure): added based on user and stakeholder feedback, expert consultations and focus groups which highlighted the importance of financial inequalities in the context of the welfare of the nation (inequality and diverse life experiences) (conceptual gap).

• Gender pay gap (new measure): added to provide further information on the patterns of income and financial inequality in the UK (inequality and diverse life experiences) (conceptual gap).

• Difficulty managing financially (retained, source changed): from November 2023, data source will change (from USoc to the OPN), reducing the geographic coverage from UK to GB, but improving timeliness of the estimates by reducing the time lag between data collection and publication and increasing the frequency at which new data is available (comparability, timeliness and geographic coverage).

Education and skills

• NEET (retained, source unchanged).

• No qualifications (retained, source changed): data source changed to the Annual Population Survey (APS) January to December dataset to improve coherence between the headline measure and breakdowns by region; previously, the headline estimates as well as the age and sex breakdowns, were reported using the Labour Force Survey (LFS) data from Quarter 3 (July to Sept) of each year and the regional breakdowns using the APS (October to September).

• A-level or equivalent qualifications (new measure): added based on suggestions from the user and stakeholder survey and TAG feedback to complement the existing measure on "No qualifications" with a measure capturing qualifications held by people in the UK (conceptual gap).

• Human capital (retained, source unchanged): we received feedback from the user survey that the measure only captures one element of human capital; the ONS is continuing to develop its suite of human capital measures to consider wider factors that influence people's development and to more directly measure and account for people's skills and experience (these plans will be published in a Human Capital workplan in the coming months); we will monitor this progress and align the UK MNW with relevant changes.

• Satisfaction with skills (new measure): added based on feedback from the user and stakeholder survey, expert consultations and focus groups which suggested that there is an interest in a measure that captures people's confidence in their skills, availability of learning and training opportunities and a sense of being able to take one's career and life where they want to; this addition offers a subjective measure to complement the other, objective measures in the "Education and skills" domain (conceptual gap).

• Satisfaction with education system (new measure): added based on user and stakeholder suggestions that a suite of measures around public service provisions, including the education system, would be valuable to the framework (conceptual gap).

Economy

• Unemployment rate (retained, source unchanged): measure was moved from the "What we do" domain to the "Economy" domain based on expert advice.

• Inflation (retained, source unchanged).

• Public sector net debt (retained, source unchanged).

• Consumer confidence (new measure): added based on suggestions from the user and stakeholder survey that a measure that captures people's trust and confidence in the UK economy would help provide a more comprehensive picture of how the UK is doing in this respect; this addition also offers a subjective measure to complement the other, objective measures in the "Economy" domain (conceptual gap).

Governance

• Voter turnout (retained, source unchanged).

• Trust in UK government (retained, source unchanged): measure title was changed from "Trust in government"), to make it clear which government is being referred to (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

• Voice (retained, source unchanged): measure title was changed from "Civic engagement" to better represent what this measure captures; feedback received stated that the question used for this measure may cause confusion, so we are testing the wording of the question (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

• Satisfaction with police (new measure): added based on user and stakeholder suggestions that a suite of measures around public service provisions, including the police, would be valuable to the framework (conceptual gap).

• Satisfaction with courts and legal system (new measure): added based on user and stakeholder suggestions that a suite of measures around public service provisions, including the justice system, would be valuable to the framework (conceptual gap).

Environment

• Greenhouse gas emissions (retained, source unchanged).

• Renewable energy consumption (retained, source changed): measure title was changed from "Renewable energy" and data source for this measure was changed in line with the recommendation from the data owner (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) as the original data source and method of calculating greenhouse gas emissions were discontinued (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

• Household recycling (retained, source unchanged).

• Protected areas (retained, source unchanged): we will now present protected areas broken down by land and sea in the dashboard, so the measure label was changed from "Total extent of protected areas" to "Extent of protected areas at land and sea" to better describe the measure; the data tables will remain the same as they have always presented total, land and sea protected areas (definitional changes and revisions based on specific user feedback).

• Priority species (new measure): added based on feedback from users and stakeholders and consultations with internal and external experts to fill a gap identified through the literature review (conceptual gap).

• Air pollution (new measure): added based on feedback from users and stakeholders and consultations with internal and external experts to fill a gap identified through the literature review (conceptual gap).

• Surface water status (new measure): added based on feedback from users and stakeholders and consultations with internal and external experts to fill a gap identified through the literature review (conceptual gap).

• Pro-environmental lifestyle (new measure): added based on suggestions from the user and stakeholder survey to fill a gap around people's actions and attitudes when it comes to environment and climate change; this addition also offers a subjective measure to complement the other, more objective measures in the "Environment" domain (conceptual gap).

We removed six existing measures from the framework, as they did not meet the inclusion criteria we set for the revised measures of national well-being.

Existing measures removed from the framework, with justification.

• Mental well-being: removed as the frequency of data updates (every three years) did not meet our timeliness requirements; alternative source was not sought based on feedback that the "Mental well-being" measure and the "Depression or anxiety" measure duplicated coverage of mental health in the framework and the nuanced difference between the measures was unclear to the users.

• Disability: removed based on feedback that the percentage of people reporting disability is difficult to interpret in terms of progress and does not represent the actual well-being of those with a disability; well-being of those with a disability will instead be captured through demographic breakdowns provided for all measures for which the relevant data are available, which will be published annually starting from Autumn 2023.

• Leisure time satisfaction: removed based on feedback that a more comprehensive measure of satisfaction with different ways people spent their time, not only their leisure time but including work-life balance, would be preferred.

• Frequency of volunteering: based on feedback that having two volunteering measures was too much, we removed this measure from the dashboard, but this will still be provided in the data tables alongside "Volunteering".

• Satisfaction with household income: removed to minimise duplication as the estimates correlate strongly with measures of "Median household income" and "Difficulty managing financially"; "Difficulty managing financially" was preferred as a subjective measure of financial inequality and disparities.

• Disposable income: removed to avoid duplication of several income measures, but keeping "Median household income" measure to present a measure of living standards in the UK which can be broken down by demographic characteristics; we have additionally added "Household income inequality" as measured through the Gini coefficient to provide a national measure of income focussing on inequality, a strong theme in the review.

Dissemination of national well-being statistics

In our user and stakeholder survey, 64% of respondents reported that they prefer quarterly updates of the MNW and 53% wanted the analytical commentary to be updated quarterly. As we already publish quarterly updates, we will continue to publish the UK MNW quarterly.

We previously published the MNW through three outputs: the Quality of life in the UK bulletin, the MNW dashboard and MNW data tables. In our stakeholder survey, the bulletin was the least used output, and least preferred method of dissemination. As a result, we will improve the commentary in the UK MNW dashboard and stop publishing our bulletin. The dashboard will be updated in line with the received feedback to serve the user needs better and will become the primary output for the UK MNW, alongside the associated data tables providing underlying data. Examples of changes to the dashboard include:

• improving data discussion and commentary

• making the charts clearer and more consistent

• introducing an overall assessment of change over time

• improving data access from the dashboard

• improving publicity and signposting of the dashboard

The implementation plan and further details on the development of the new UK MNW dashboard can be found in our UK MNW, current and upcoming work: July 2023 article.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who contributed to this review by participating in our research, sharing feedback, and offering advice. This includes our TAG and topic experts within the ONS.

Getting in touch

We welcome questions and feedback on the results of the Review of the UK Measures of National Well-being and our implementation plans. You can contact us by emailing qualityoflife@ons.gov.uk.