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Today @resfoundation is in the happiness business - with a new report asking what are the lessons for policy makers from going beyond the pounds and pence of GDP and diving into data on our well-being resolutionfoundation.org/publications/h…
We've been collecting lots of well-being data since 2011 in the UK. If Brexit is the result of the early eurosceptic flirtation phase of @David_Cameron career, this data is the less controversial second album from his down with the kids Bhutan period theguardian.com/politics/2010/…
So what does it tell us as individuals and policy makers about what helps on the happiness front? Well focus on being 16 or 70 for a start - there's lots of less perky phases of life in between... less midlife crisis and midlife life 
Life is definitely about more than pounds and pence - good health and being in a stable relationship make the biggest differences to our well-being. But pounds and pence still matter a lot....
Key chart: income really matters - but it matters a lot more for those on lower incomes. Redistribution isnt just the right thing to do - it boosts societies overall well being because £1 does much more to boost your well-being if you're on £10k rather than £100k
Being in work improves well-being - as does being retired. So policy makers should stick with the goal of full employment but also ensuring workers (and their employers) save enough so that retirement actually happens
Work is good for well-being - but jobs have very different effects on our wellbeing, even if they're paid the same. Careers advice in schools needs to be pointing out to the youth that florists and clergy are where the happiness is...
Having a permanent job, with the hours we want to work, boost wellbeing. Interesting that having too many hours work is worse than too few on most measures of well being (happiness/anxiety/worthwhile) - life satisfaction is the exception
On homes, owners get the most happy points in the current system - which isnt surprising given the insecurity challenges in private renting or quality issues for parts of the social rented sector. Policy makers should be sorting both
Conclusion: it's great we now have well-being data - it's a bit odd if that isn't our overall objective. It's an important complement to trad living standards metrics because there's more to life than £s but £s still count. Full report from @GeorgeBangham resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/20…
