UK falls five places in global happiness index

Women and young people worst-affected, IFS researchers say

The UK has fallen five places on a list ranking nations by happiness, as researchers said mental health had been “one of the greatest casualties” of coronavirus.

The country saw one of the largest decreases in happiness in the global list and dropped to 18th place. Women and young people were most likely to have suffered “persistently bad deteriorations”, a report found.

Researchers constructing the World Happiness Report said the measure for “life evaluation” in the UK fell from 7.16 in 2019 to 6.80 in 2020 – a statistically significant change.

Experts from the Institute for Fiscal Studies said 42 countries had registered a significantly higher frequency of negative emotions, though there were nine that saw an opposite trend.

Twenty-six nations had significant increases in life evaluation measures, and 20 had major drops.

The report authors said the modest changes to the overall rankings reflect both the global nature of the pandemic and a "widely-shared resilience".

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They wrote: "Given how all lives have been so importantly disrupted, it is remarkable that the averages are so stable."

Dr Mark Williamson, chief executive of Action for Happiness, a charity and positive-thinking group, said: "This has been a tough year for so many of us and the World Happiness Report shows that the UK has suffered more than most when it comes to happiness.

"Policymakers should take this as an opportunity to centre human happiness and wellbeing as we recover from the pandemic so that we can build back happier.

"The report also shows the importance of trust and community benevolence, which really means kindness and doing things for others. Not only do these things make us happier, but when it comes to Covid, they can save lives."

Action for Happiness said one of the potential benefits from the pandemic may be that conversations about mental health will become normal.

IFS researchers found:

• A general measure of UK mental health was 8 per cent lower than predicted in pandemic’s absence
• One-fifth of population had persistently worse mental health in first six months of crisis
• Young women initially worst-affect, but they recovered
• Women over 65 had “more persistent deteriorations” while middle-aged and older men were least-affected
• People with large friendship groups, or who lost work, were more likely to feel worse
• Those in strong romantic relationships fared better

Xiaowei Xu, a senior research economist at the IFS and an author of the paper, said: "Women and young people are most likely to have suffered persistently bad deteriorations.

"Policymakers should target support at these groups as we come out of the pandemic and start to rebuild."

Separate research published in the report found that UK workers who lost their jobs or were furloughed, and were already lonely, became 43 per cent less happy than those who did not already experience loneliness.

The wellbeing of lonely workers was slower to return to normal once they got back to work, according to researchers from the Said Business School at Oxford University.

Additional reporting by Press Association