What works to improve ONS4 personal subjective wellbeing?

We conducted a rapid evidence assessment of impact evaluations that use the Office for National Statistics’ measures of personal subjective wellbeing, known as the ONS4.

The review is part of our work to systematically identify and summarise evidence from evaluations that use wellbeing frameworks and standardised measures.

What are the ONS4?

The ONS are harmonised measures to assesses personal wellbeing using four measures that capture three types of well-being: evaluative, eudemonic and affective experience.

These measures ask:

1. Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? (Life satisfaction)
2. Overall, to what extent do you feel that the things you do in your life are worthwhile? (Purpose)
3. Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? (Happiness)
4. On a scale where 0 is “not at all anxious” and 10 is “completely anxious”, overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday? (Anxiety)

One of the main benefits of collecting information on personal wellbeing is that it is based on people’s subjective views, taking into account what matters to them.

These are national statistics as part of the UK National Measuring Wellbeing Programme and the measures for Levelling Up Mission 8 and one of the two overall outcomes of Levelling Up.

What did we do?

After a series of conversations across our networks, a key part of this rapid evidence assessment was identifying how and why, and for whom, the projects and programmes worked.

To build our understanding of how the ONS4 feature and perform in wellbeing impact evaluations we gathered information on the aims, population, and quality of each evaluation. This helps us build a picture of what types of interventions work to improve personal wellbeing among adults in the UK.

This is the first time an evidence review has been carried out for the ONS4. It’s part of our work to provide wellbeing evidence that can inform planning, design, and policy implementation and practice.

The focus on measures will ensure wellbeing findings are comparable and can be used to make decisions on how to design or commission activity.

Outputs from the project including the full technical report can be explored in the ‘In this project’ section below.

Children and Young People’s Measures: ONS4 evaluations and beyond

If you would like to collaborate on further reviews of evaluations that use standardised wellbeing measures, please email us at info@whatworkswellbeing.org.