Life in the UK 2023

Project summary

Carnegie UK has been involved in understanding and measuring collective wellbeing for over a decade. Over this time, we have supported governments to take a broader view of social progress and to balance social, economic, environmental and democratic (SEED) outcomes in decision making, resource allocation and long-term planning.

In 2023, we published our first Life in the UK index. It found that in 2023, people were not living well. Despite ample evidence about the lived reality of these challenges, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remains the only single comparable number used as a barometer of progress, driving policy making and shaping public debate. GDP sits at the top of a pyramid of statistics about units of production and was developed in the 1930s to fill gaps in available information about the state of the economy. It was never intended to be a measure of wellbeing or progress.

Our 2023 index – based on polling of 6,900 people – found that older people in the UK report a higher quality of life than their younger counterparts.

We argued that government should work to close the gap between these age groups by delivering policies designed to boost the wellbeing of younger people.