The Wellbeing Comparison survey was undertaken by YouGov on behalf of Ofcom. The core objective of this study was to assess how UK Adults perceive their general satisfaction, worthiness, happiness and anxiety both in their personal lives and when they go online.
Specifically, the key aims and objectives were:
- To understand perceived satisfaction and happiness amongst UK adults, both in their personal and online lives
- To explore if there are any notable differences between perceived satisfaction and happiness when comparing between personal and online perceptions
Overall, there are some differences between feelings of life satisfaction, worthwhileness and anxiety amongst those asked about their general personal life, compared to those asked about their online life. Happiness is broadly the same between the two groups although those thinking about their time online are less likely to give a low happiness score, so more likely to be happier on the whole, than those thinking about their personal life. Fieldwork was recorded over a 4-day period and there does not appear to be any significant impact on the day of the week in the answers given to these sets of questions.