Measuring National Well-being - Older People’s Neighbourhoods, 2013

This is the first in a series of short articles examining the well-being of older people aged 50 and over using measures related to the Measuring National Well-being Programme. The Office for National Statistics measures of well-being are organised into ten domains with each domain having between three and five separate indicators. More information about all the measures can be found in the ‘National Well-being wheel of measures’ (ONS 2012a).

One of the indicators in the ‘Where we live’ domain is the percentage of people who agree that they belong to their neighbourhood. The information for this measure is taken from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) which collects information each year about the social and economic circumstances and attitudes of people. Respondents to this survey were asked if they felt they belonged to their neighbourhood and were also asked whether the friendships and associations they had with other people in their neighbourhood meant a lot to them. Having a strong sense of belonging to one’s neighbourhood and a circle of local friends and associates has been shown to be related to greater community cohesion and a higher sense of security. Belonging strongly to a neighbourhood has also been shown to have a positive effect on health and well-being