How happy is Britain?

David Cameron has described the task of gauging people’s wellbeing as one of the “central political issues of our time” and has given the go ahead for a nationwide survey to begin testing the happiness of Brits.

On the 25th November independent national statistician Jil Matheson will begin devising questions to add to the existing household survey which individuals will be answering as early as next spring.

The questions are to include a gauge of happiness and questions about how individuals are achieving their ‘life goals’ in a bid to measure psychological and environmental wellbeing.

Various other countries such as France and Canada are looking at implementing similar initiatives as governments around the world face increasing pressure to focus not only on conventional economic measures but also on the prosperity and well-being of their countries residents.

Cameron hopes the results will eventually be central in future government policy making.

Original article