Average life satisfaction still below pre-pandemic peak despite improving economic outlook, reports ONS
The proportion of people in the UK who feel dissatisfied with life has failed to improve since the pandemic despite the economic outlook improving, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics said its quarterly survey of personal wellbeing in the UK shows that average life satisfaction remains below its pre-pandemic peak, despite the rate of GDP per person rising over the same period.
The statistics body said that after a long period of stability through the mid-2010s, the proportion of people reporting low levels of life satisfaction rose sharply between 2020 and 2021 during the Covid pandemic. This reached a nine-year high in the first three months of 2021, when 6.4% of adults aged 16 and above said they felt very unsatisfied with life.
Since then, the measure has fallen a little, but has remained broadly at about 5%, with the latest figures, for July to September 2025, showing 5.1% of adults felt very unsatisfied with life.
