Free self-tests · 1 min · 4 questions
Personal wellbeing check: the four ONS questions
These four questions are how the UK measures personal wellbeing in its national surveys. They ask how satisfied you are with your life, whether what you do feels worthwhile, and how happy and how anxious you felt yesterday.
Each answer is read on its own, using the same groupings the Office for National Statistics uses. There is no total and no diagnosis. Yesterday might have been an unusual day, and that is fine.
Your answers stay in your browser and nothing is stored or sent.
Free, no sign-up. Your progress is saved only in this browser on this device, so you can stop and come back later. Nothing is sent to anyone.
Next, I would like to ask you four questions about your feelings on aspects of your life. There are no right or wrong answers. For each of these questions I'd like you to give an answer on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is "not at all" and 10 is "completely".
Your results
This is a self-report questionnaire, not a diagnosis. Only a qualified professional can assess you properly.
Talk it through: book a session
The PDF is created on your device. Your saved answers stay in this browser until you start again or clear them.
These four questions are a snapshot, and two of them only ask about yesterday. They are designed to measure wellbeing across a whole population, so on an individual level the most useful thing is to answer them a few times and see the pattern. They can't diagnose depression or anxiety.
If you scored low on satisfaction, worth or happiness, or high on anxiety, on most days for two weeks or more, please talk to a GP or another qualified health professional. If you are thinking about harming yourself, call 999 in the UK or 112 in Europe, or Samaritans on 116 123, and see the helplines page for free lines in other countries.
A low sense that life is worthwhile often appears when someone's role has changed: following a partner abroad, stepping back from a career, or living by other people's expectations. Counselling can be a space to think about what would make life feel more like your own. I am a trainee person-centred counsellor working under supervision. You can read about feeling stuck, the trailing spouse experience and family duty and the self, or book a first session.
How the ONS4 score works
4 questions, scored by adding up your answers. These are the score ranges this page uses to describe your result. Where the questionnaire's authors publish official cut-offs, the ranges follow them; the sources are listed below.
| Score | Range |
|---|---|
| Low | 0 to 4 |
| Medium | 5 to 6 |
| High | 7 to 8 |
| Very high | 9 to 10 |
| Score | Range |
|---|---|
| Low | 0 to 4 |
| Medium | 5 to 6 |
| High | 7 to 8 |
| Very high | 9 to 10 |
| Score | Range |
|---|---|
| Low | 0 to 4 |
| Medium | 5 to 6 |
| High | 7 to 8 |
| Very high | 9 to 10 |
| Score | Range |
|---|---|
| Very low | 0 to 1 |
| Low | 2 to 3 |
| Medium | 4 to 5 |
| High | 6 to 10 |
About this questionnaire
ONS personal well-being measures (ONS4) by Office for National Statistics (UK) (2011).
Office for National Statistics. (n.d.). Personal well-being user guidance. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/methodologies/personalwellbeingsurveyuserguide
Used in line with the published terms of use.
Questions people ask
What are the ONS4 wellbeing questions?
They are four questions the UK Office for National Statistics uses in national surveys: life satisfaction, how worthwhile your life feels, how happy you felt yesterday and how anxious you felt yesterday. Each is answered from 0 to 10 and read on its own.
What counts as a low wellbeing score?
The ONS groups life satisfaction, worthwhile and happiness scores of 0 to 4 as low, 5 to 6 as medium, 7 to 8 as high and 9 to 10 as very high. For anxiety, 0 to 1 is very low, 2 to 3 low, 4 to 5 medium and 6 to 10 high.
Why are there no total scores?
The four questions measure different things: how you judge life overall, your sense of purpose, and your feelings yesterday. Adding them together would blur those differences, so the ONS reports each one separately.
Are my answers private?
Yes. Your answers are scored in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent, and refreshing the page clears them. There is no account, no email and no tracking of your answers. If you want to keep your result, a screenshot is the simplest way.