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Official statistics show UK wellbeing stuck in a rut, says Carnegie UK

  • 14 November 2024
  • 2 minute read

An update to official figures measuring the wellbeing of UK citizens shows scant improvement in the lives of the people of the nation, according to wellbeing experts Carnegie UK.

The ONS has today (14 November) updated their UK Measures of National Well-being Dashboard, a collection of statistics that measure quality of life in the UK. The figures show little or no improvement across measures including personal finance, community integration and political trust.

Carnegie UK says that these figures chime with their recently published Life in the UK Index. The wellbeing policy foundation says that improving the lives of citizens should be the overarching aim of the government.

Adam Lang, director of policy at Carnegie UK, said: “These new figures confirm that the wellbeing of the people of the UK is stuck in a rut. And many of the problems that this data identifies will take time, money and effort to fix. But the only way we have a chance to change gear is if the government uses statistics like these to inform its decision-making.

“This update shows that only one in five people trust the UK Government, figures that chime with our own research looking at the state of democratic wellbeing in the UK. Restoring trust in politics and government is the Labour administration’s missing mission – an omission that should be addressed at the earliest opportunity.”

This update follows yesterday’s release by the ONS of new UK inclusive wealth and income accounts: 2005 to 2022. They describe this publication as “…estimates and analysis of economic progress, including a broader range of economic activities and assets than gross domestic product (GDP).”

Adam Lang said: “The ONS’s new efforts to measure what really matters to people’s lives should be applauded.

“At Carnegie UK we know that traditional government metrics – such as GDP – fall short of describing the needs of people to live well. That’s why we developed our own Life in the UK index to provide an annual measure of the UK’s collective wellbeing across social, economic, environmental and democratic domains.

“We will follow this update from the ONS closely and hope that it can help to inform better UK policy making.”