The Good Childhood Report 2024 published by the Children's Society shows the latest trends in children's wellbeing. The group's research seeks to understand how young people feel about different aspects of their lives. This year’s Good Childhood Report reveals that too many young people are unhappy with their lives. 11% of the children and young people who completed the Children's Society survey in 2024 had low wellbeing. And shockingly, data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2022) shows that the UK’s 15-year-olds had the lowest average life satisfaction in Europe.

Key findings from The Children’s Society’s own annual survey 2024

In 2024, 10- to 17-year-olds who took part in this annual survey were, on average, most happy with their family (out of the 10 aspects of life asked about in our Good Childhood Index). More children and young people (14.3%) were unhappy with school than with the nine other areas of life they were asked about (that is, they scored below the midpoint on the measure of happiness with school).  

• More children and young people said they were worried about rising prices, compared with the other eight societal issues they were asked about. Two in five (41%) children and young people were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ worried about this issue.

• 23% of parents and carers said that they had found it ‘quite’ or ‘very’ difficult to manage financially between January and March 2024, which indicates that their households were in financial strain.  

• One in six (17%) children and young people living in households in financial strain had low life satisfaction. For children and young people living in households not in financial strain, this was just under one in ten (9%). 

Comparing UK children’s wellbeing with other European countries 

Data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 enabled us to see how the wellbeing of 15-year-olds in the UK compared to that of their peers across Europe. 

• When comparing to 26 other countries in Europe, the UK had the lowest average overall life satisfaction among 15-year-olds. 
• There were differences in life satisfaction between girls and boys both in the UK, and on average across Europe. In the UK, girls’ average life satisfaction declined between 2018 and 2022, while boys’ remained broadly stable. 
• In terms of socio-economic differences, the UK was the European country with the largest gap in average life satisfaction between the 25% most advantaged and the 25% most disadvantaged 15-year-olds.