Britons experienced the sharpest-ever decline in their outlook on life in the first year of the Covid pandemic, bringing wellbeing to some of the lowest levels recorded, official figures show.
Data from the Office for National Statistics revealed that life satisfaction dropped to the lowest levels recorded since it began collecting the data in 2014, while anxiety soared to its highest ever level.
Meanwhile, feelings that life is worthwhile and happiness dropped to their lowest levels in seven years.
The survey of hundreds of thousands of Britons, which took place in the year up to March 2020, shows the UK’s attitudes during the first year of the pandemic.
People spent much of the 12-month period under stringent measures to control the spread of the coronavirus, meaning they were stuck at home, unable to see loved ones and only allowed to venture outside for exercise once a day or essential shopping.
A series of surveys have laid bare the mental health cost of the pandemic, triggering a surge in mental health problems.
Data from the Office for National Statistics revealed that life satisfaction dropped to the lowest levels recorded since it began collecting the data in 2014, while anxiety soared to its highest ever level. Meanwhile, feelings that life is worthwhile and happiness dropped to their lowest levels in seven years
The ONS asked 320,000 over-16s how satisfied they were with life, the extent to which they felt the things they did were worthwhile, as well as how happy and anxious they felt.
They responded to the questions on a scale of 0 to 10. For the first three questions, a score of zero to four was considered low, five to six was medium, seven to eight was high, while nine to 10 was seen as very high.
For the anxiety question, a zero to three was low, four to five was medium and over six was high.
The average score for life satisfaction was 7.39 - the
