The first steps to understanding society

The first findings from the world's largest study of households are now published. The Understanding Society publication reveals a comprehensive snap shot of UK households. Starting in 2009, the year when Britain officially entered recession for the first time since 1991 and the Copenhagen climate summit ended in more questions than answers, the study offers an unprecedented insight into 40,000 UK households as they respond to regional, national and international change.

The publication offers a window into British society in the 21st century. With data on our working lives, relationships, health, finances and neighbourhoods this first volume gives an early taste of the social landscape of the UK as the country fell into the deepest recession for 60 years.

Nick Buck, Director of Understanding Society said: "Although these are first findings, they cover a wide range of areas around people's lives and experiences. The purpose of the volume is not only to present and share these findings, but more importantly they show the future potential of the study. We look forward to demonstrating that potential even more clearly once Understanding Society has collected more data over the coming years."

David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, agrees: "Social and economic research tells us a huge amount about the world around us. This high-quality study has looked at people of all ages and backgrounds and given us insights into health, wealth and happiness. The findings will inform not only individual life choices but also government policy, directing efforts towards those who need it most."

Key findings from this early research include:

Sibling bullying

• more than half of all siblings (54 per cent) were involved in bullying in one form or another which is higher than has been reported in the USA, Israel or Italy using similar measures
  
• sibling bullying is frequent and a third (33.6 per cent) of all adolescents both bully their siblings and are the victims of bullying at the hand of their siblings

• the unemployed and the economically inactive have the lowest average life satisfaction 4.7 and 4.8 respectively on a 7 point scale, while those in some form of employment average 5.3 for life satisfaction
  
• when accounting for other characteristics, among young people (aged less than 25), economic inactivity is associated with the highest life satisfaction (a predicted life satisfaction of 5.5), followed by unemployment (5.4) and full-time work (5.3). Being unemployed has no impact on the mental wellbeing among young people, all else being equal

• people with degrees are 25 per cent more likely, on average, than people with no education qualifications to adopt pro-environmental behaviours, at least in terms of paying more for environmentally-friendly products. Yet, they are less likely to turn the TV off overnight, to switch off lights in unused rooms and to use public transport rather than travel by car

• for both men and women, happiness declines with the duration of the relationship, with the decline being steeper for women. It is also the case that older people are less happy in their relationships than younger people
  
• childless couples are happiest with their relationships and those with a pre-school child are least happy, though happiness increases with the age of the youngest child

• the most common single household income was only £1,000 per month
  
• about one household in six is in poverty. As expected, poverty rates are higher than average for pensioners, and for families with children: 23 per cent of pensioner households are poor as are 20 per cent of households with children