This month the UK starts collecting data, the first country in the world, on its populations happiness.

200,000 questionnaires are being sent out this week to residents by e UK Office for National Statistics. The questionnaire will include four questions: Overall, how satisfied are you with your life? Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday? Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

With the resulting data government can then try improving the nations happiness based on evidence rather than hunch. It should also mean that happiness is kept on the agenda.

Social scientists can already tell us that generally happiness increases with wealth and als with drecreases inequality. But it’s clear a whole heap more to learn in this area and this data collection is a huge step forward in improving happiness.