How happy are people in the United Kingdom? How satisfied are they with their lives? These questions and others are central to the well-being agenda that has been growing in prominence in economic and wider policy circles since the turn of the century.

This paper, the first time the Resolution Foundation has published detailed analysis of subjective well-being, takes a wide-ranging look at what well-being data has to offer by way of lessons for economic policymakers concerned with raising the nation’s living standards.