People are living healthier longer lives, but are less satisfied with their well-being, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It's report Measuring Well-Being: Life in the UK 2016, found that between 2009 and 2011 healthy life expectancy at birth was 64.2 years for men, up from 62.5 years in the previous period (2006-2008). For women, this also improved to 66.1 years from 64.2.
However, the report found people were less at ease with their health in recent years. The proportion of people who were satisfied dropped in the financial year ending 2014 (57.8%) compared to the same period ending 2011 (66.3%).
"The way in which people view their health is crucial to well-being," said the report. "This highlights the importance of considering how people are feeling, for example, their satisfaction with health alongside measures such as healthy life expectancies."
For those aged 75 and over, 50.7% reported they were happy, as did 54.7% of those aged between 45 and 54 .
For a younger age group, almost two-thirds (66%) of people aged 16 to 24 were content with their health, with 15.2% reporting that they were very satisfied with their well-being.
The report said: "As people get older they tend to develop more health problems, so the fact that those aged 75 and over have the lowest proportion satisfied with their health is not unexpected."
