Crisis, what crisis? Most still smiling despite the gloom

The majority of Britons are happy in spite of the recent gloomy economic news.

A government-sponsored study of “well-being” has shown 76 per cent of people rated themselves as seven out of ten, or higher, when asked to gauge how satisfied they were with life. The poll of 4,200 adults carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the figure rose to 78 per cent when people were asked to rate the extent to which they felt the things they did in life were worthwhile. ONS project leader Stephen Hicks said: “These are early experimental results, but nevertheless they give us an indication of the well-being levels within Great Britain in this case.”