Life in the UK 2024 Northern Ireland

The Life in the UK index is designed to measure the collective wellbeing of the people of the UK, looking at social, economic, environmental, and democratic aspects of life.  This publication outlines the scores for Northern Ireland for collective, social, economic, environmental and democratic wellbeing. The research is based on a representative survey of over 700 people from Northern Ireland.  It presents key findings in relation to how different demographics are living across Northern Ireland.

Key findings include:

• Wellbeing in stagnation: Our research found no improvement in wellbeing across any of our headline measures for the people of Northern Ireland.
• Deep inequalities: People on lower incomes, disabled people and people aged 16-34 experience the lowest levels of wellbeing.
• Opportunity to build trust: Our polling shows a small increase in trust for the Northern Ireland Executive and MLAs; however, the wider dataset reveals a widespread lack of trust in political systems.

Our Life in the UK Index shows that we can create a robust and comprehensive measure of social progress, rather than rely on GDP alone.

The report outlines three key areas of opportunity that the Northern Ireland Executive should grasp to deliver its Programme for Government:

1. Develop legislation that includes a duty on public bodies to play their part in delivering the wellbeing missions.
2. Embrace the benefits of a whole-of-government approach.
3. Include the priority of “Peace” as a mission and develop plans for its delivery.