Health, wealth and happiness: week 12
Doug Edmonds, managing director of 2CV, reveals that women’s wealth is on the up as they reap the rewards of budgeting.
This week’s 2CV Well-Being Index has fallen slightly again this week by 3%, registering at 35.
At an overall level, well-being has been declining since the first week of the year. However, there are no significant drops across health, wealth and happiness levels this week so it will be interesting to see whether this trend continues throughout February or, as we hope to see, the nation’s outlook is boosted.
Not surprisingly, a significant uplift of 8 points to 32% is recorded in wealth satisfaction scores across all age-groups and sexes as the effects of January pay cheques are felt. Women in particular were driving this uplift with a third now feeling content with their finances, up from just 22% the previous week. The results suggest that perhaps they have been particularly strict with their budgeting as pay day loomed – a factor that marketers should keep in mind.
Men’s well-being has taken a slight tumble, falling from 41% to 34%. In addition, their health levels have dropped 6 points to 43% suggesting that those unrealistic health goals set at the start of the month are proving difficult and dissatisfaction with fitness is affecting their overall well-being.
On a more positive note, happiness amongst the older generation has risen 6 points to 57%, indicating that the slump in mood throughout January is being remedied as they look forward to new plans. Here are the results by each category:
Young People
Overall well-being levels have taken a slight dip amongst 15 to 34-year-olds, falling from 43% to just under a third this week. Despite this, satisfaction with health remains static and following last week’s bumper surge in happiness, the younger generation are still one of the age groups with the most positive outlook with nearly one half (48%) content and happy.
Middle-aged band
Aside from the excitement of pay day boosting satisfaction with finances, overall well-being remains static in addition to health and happiness levels. Interestingly, looking at the data month-on-month, well-being has remained at a consistent 33% over the three months from November.
Grey Market
The 55 to 74 age group takes the lead in happiness levels and like all other age groups, report an upsurge in satisfaction with their financial situation. For the past four weeks they have registered the highest wealth scores and looking at the data month-on-month have remained in the lead for the last three months. Health scores drop by just 5 points to 44%.
