Scotland the only part of the UK feeling happier

Scotland is the only country in the UK where its people are getting any happier.
Research has found people in Scotland are getting happier than their UK neighbours. PIC: NTS.Research has found people in Scotland are getting happier than their UK neighbours. PIC: NTS.
Research has found people in Scotland are getting happier than their UK neighbours. PIC: NTS.

The Office for National Statistics said Scotland was the only country to show an increase in life satisfaction, feeling happy and feeling worthwhile between December 2016 and 2017

Meanwhile, no overall changes in wellbeing were recorded in England, Wales or Northern Ireland over the period.

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It means that Scotland is now driving improvements to happiness in the UK as a whole.

Silvia Manclossi, Head of Quality of Life Team at the ONS, said: “An important aspect of our work is to shed light on inequalities in society to better support who is struggling in different aspects of life.

“For example, over this period we have seen some differences between countries, with Scotland driving improvements in personal well-being in the UK.

While the happiness of Scots is growing, researchers found a consistent trend of a large proportion of people in Northern Ireland reporting “very high ratings” of personal wellbeing.

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People in Northern Ireland also continually reported very low scores for anxiety, ONS said.

England also reported a drop in average ratings of anxiety over the period while rates in Wales went up. In Scotland, rates of those who reported suffering from anxiety during the previous day remained around the same.

A further regional breakdown of figures was not available from ONS this afternoon but statistics show that 30.1 per cent of people in the UK reported a very high rating of satisfaction with their lives in the 12 months to December 2017.

While there was no change over the short term (29.6% in the year ending December 2016), there was an improvement over the long-term (26.2% in the year ending December 2012).