What is the Index?

Our wellbeing index will focus mainly on longer term overall wellbeing. It explores eight areas of our lives in detail that research shows are important to long term wellbeing.

This focus is chosen to highlight areas that can help you to make lasting positive changes to your life. By making a series of small healthy decisions to improve your life your overall index score should increase. However just like it is best to only weigh yourself once a week when on a diet, it is best to only reassess your wellbeing index about once every three months to see a genuine effect – this is because it is assessing long term wellbeing.

How do you measure wellbeing?

Many people are sceptical about the measurement of something as intangible as people’s wellbeing. Surely, they argue everyone’s wellbeing is different and varies day-to-day. Whilst denying there are debates about measurement within the academic community, the consensus is that wellbeing measurement is possible and also very enlightening.

There are different measurement techniques. Some researchers use brain scans and monitor people’s hormone levels, whilst others use survey and interview techniques that ask people directly how they are faring in life. It’s this latter approach of ‘subjective’ measurement that most of the recent surge in happiness research depends on. There are different approaches within the subjective approach as well, some focus on day-to-day moods and other more longer term overall wellbeing.

This index is independently researched and all of the information provided is based on scientific studies and facts.