Deriving Summary Measures of Wellbeing using the UK Household Longitudinal Study

In this paper we derive new summary measures related to wellbeing in the UK using self-reported responses to the General Health Questions (GHQs) in the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), for the period 2009-2020. Our study makes three main empirical contributions. First, we provide a more complete picture of changes in wellbeing in the UK compared to most empirical studies. Second, we provide a detailed breakdown of the trends by examining twelve measures in different UK regions, with elements that are conventionally regarded as direct measures of wellbeing (e.g., general happiness), and other elements that more indirectly reflect the state of wellbeing (e.g., sleep, confidence). Third, we establish a method to quantify categorical responses accounting for the impact of individual-specific and regional factors. The resulting summary measure, in the form of adjusted balance statistics, is therefore expected to be more informative than simple aggregation. Our results show that wellbeing in the UK has followed a downward trend since 2014, both at the national and regional level, and for most of the dimensions.