Glasto’s back; foreign holidays are back (when the planes are flying); breathing in the delicate air of the London Underground without a mask is back; and the office is back — for many, only if and when you feel like it. Doesn’t all this freedom make you feel elated? Positively happy-go-lucky?
Apparently not. Data from the Office for National Statistics show that while the proportion of adults reporting high levels of anxiety has fallen since the start of the pandemic, when it spiked to about 50 per cent, we are still feeling angsty. For the past year that figure has been stuck stubbornly above the 30 per cent level, 33 per cent in the most recent survey, markedly up from 21 per cent at the end of 2019.
This has, for much of the past two years, largely been down to Covid, in terms of the illness itself and also its indirect effects. But the Resolution Foundation has shown the proportion of Britons saying their wellbeing is affected by the pandemic has fallen below the number reporting high anxiety in recent months. We’re still very anxious, in other words, but we’re worrying more about other things.