Britons still happy despite financial woes, survey finds

Most Britons report being satisfied with life, with concerns over work and precarious finances being outweighed by the happiness gained from children, relationships and where people live, according to a landmark survey by the Office for National Statistics.

Released just days after economists forecast that the forthcoming recession would be deep, long and leave the public in 2015 worse off than they were in 2002, the government survey paints a picture of the country largely untouched in an emotional sense by the looming crisis.

The survey of 4,200 adults, conducted between April and August 2011, is part of the prime minister's £2m drive get a better measure of how the country is doing rather than just focusing on GDP. The ONS's work showed that on average people rated their "life satisfaction" at 7.4 out of 10. When asked whether "things they did in life" were "worthwhile", people on average gave a score of 7.6.    More