Are you happy?

It's a heavy question for the weekend, we know. But it was asked to a load of men and women in the name of science there not long ago and they seemed happy enough to answer so it's definitely answerable, probably. Happiness can be determined by a lot of different factors. Similarly, our levels of happiness can change day-to-day, sometimes almost immediately depending on our surroundings, what's happening, who we're with, and how we feel. It's a strange thing to consider if you haven't really done it before, so giving it a go some time wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. In the meantime though, a study has discovered that in general, women tend to be happier than men... while also being more anxious. Cool. Findings showed that women reported higher levels of happiness than men between 2016 and 2017. However, women also experienced higher levels of anxiety during this period too. The data was collected in the UK by the Office for National Statistics. They asked women and men the same series of questions:

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?

• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?

• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

Participants had to respond to each question on a scale of 0 - 10 with zero being 'not at all' and 10 being 'extremely.' The stats analysis was conducted in England, but sure look, England's not that far away so we can probably go ahead and assume that the findings may be similar enough over here in Ireland, right? As it turns out... No, we can't. While happiness levels have risen for both men and women in England, similar findings did not arise for people in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Tragic. Guess we better move to England so if we want to improve our happiness levels. Off we go. That being said though, other studies have found the anxiety aspect of the report to be accurate. Research published in 2016 even went so far as to claim that women are twice as likely to be affected by anxiety than men. Lucky us.