In 2012 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) introduced a series of measures to assess levels of wellbeing amongst the adult population living in the UK. These measures use a series of four questions to assess levels of wellbeing with responses provided on a scale from 0 (‘not at all’) to 10 (‘completely’).
The questions were added to MENE in four survey waves (May, August and November 2012 and February 2013) to explore correlations between a person’s propensity to visit the natural environment and their subjective wellbeing scores. A total of 3,528 interviews were conducted over the four waves.
Multivariate analysis approaches were used to explore and better understand relationships between responses to the wellbeing questions and other factors such as frequency of visits to the outdoors, and the other ways that people engage with the natural environment.
This a summary report of the main headline findings, which should be of interested to those seeking information on how engagement with the natural environment links to subjective wellbeing.