Programme

Life in the UK

View Publications

Carnegie UK’s Life in the UK index measures collective wellbeing across the UK. It is based on what people in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland tell us about their lives.

The index aims to help governments across the UK focus their attention on the things that really matter to people, and to help us understand whether we are collectively living better or worse over time.

The index also identifies where progress is being made and the areas of our lives that require policy intervention.

About the programme

Nov’23

Launched findings

Our Life in the UK index is the largest independent measure of collective wellbeing in the country.

26

Question survey

The evidence for the index is collected via a 26-question survey of respondents using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, a random probability survey panel with selection based on a random sample of UK households.

4

Nations

Life in the UK is the only wellbeing index covering all four nations of the UK.

Programme summary

There is currently limited support for a wellbeing approach to government by both decision-makers and the public. The increasingly evident limitations of GDP, rising inequalities, and the threats to wellbeing posed by the climate crisis and rising costs of living underline the importance of doing more to advocate for our vision of collective wellbeing.

In 2020, Carnegie UK developed a new model for communicating and advocating for such an approach called Gross Domestic Wellbeing. After a successful pilot in England, in 2023 we established our Life in the UK programme which was designed to measure the collective wellbeing of the people of the UK, looking at social, economic, environmental, and democratic aspects of their lives. It also presents key findings in relation to how different demographics are doing across the UK.

Our Life in the UK index provides:

a single score for collective wellbeing that shows if we are living better or worse over time.
a score for each of the four areas of collective wellbeing.
collective wellbeing and domain scores for the UK as a whole, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and each of the English regions.
Collective wellbeing and domain scores for different demographic groups.

If the UK Government is serious about delivering the ‘plan for change’ outlined in its 2024 manifesto, we strongly recommend that it adopts and implements useful and timely measures that track progress across a range of outcomes, as the Life in the UK index demonstrates is possible.

Key findings

The Life in the UK index now provides two years of robust evidence about what life is like for people across the country. The average person’s quality of life has not improved since we started this programme in 2023.
Most people in the UK believe they have no influence over local or national decision-making. Inequalities in society and a lack of trust in politics are undermining overall UK wellbeing.
The 2023 and 2024 research has revealed wide inequalities across society.
The index has consistently found that people on lower incomes, disabled people, people from minority groups, people living in social housing, and people under the age of 55 all have lower than average wellbeing.