Dissatisfaction with life in UK unchanged since Covid, official data shows

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 a survey of personal wellbeing in the UK showed average life satisfaction remained below its pre-pandemic peak, despite the rate of gross domestic product per person rising since 2021.

The report also flagged the more recent decline in living standards, pointing out that UK GDP per person fell in the third and fourth quarters of 2025.

The ONS also said trust in the UK government remained low, with about one in five adults (21.9%) in Great Britain reporting trust in December 2025 to January 2026.

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.

The survey showed that those aged between 45 and 64 were the most unsatisfied with life, while those aged 30 to 34 reported the lowest proportion of life dissatisfaction.

However, the proportion of adults reporting a very high level of life satisfaction has also risen over the past year, from 25.5% in July to September 2024 to 26.7% during the same period in 2025.

The ONS said people’s sense of life satisfaction used to grow in line with GDP per person, but this “diverged sharply” during the pandemic and had failed to realign. GDP per person was £10,127 in the final three months of 2025, down 0.1% from £10,135 in the previous quarter, but up 0.6% from £10,071 a year earlier.

Alongside less satisfaction with life, the proportion of adults reporting good or very good health had also fallen significantly, from 76% at the end of 2020 to 70.9% in the final quarter of 2025. The ONS said this indicated “a sustained post‑pandemic decline in overall health”. This aligned with separate statistics that showed economic inactivity due to long-term sickness had risen since the pandemic.

The figures ccame as a number of consumer surveys suggested that households were still feeling downbeat about the future, despite inflation dropping to 3% in January, from 3.4% a month earlier, and interest rates steadily coming down.

A long-running survey by GfK reported that consumer confidence in the UK fell for the first time in three months in February due to a rise in people reporting worries about their personal finances for the year ahead. Similarly, a report by S&P Global said the mood among UK households about their finances was “dismal” in February, with consumers worrying about their debts, their future financial prospects and their savings.