Bristol’s citizens feel significantly less satisfied with life than before the Covid-19 pandemic, finds the Council’s annual Quality of Life survey.
Despite an overall decline in life satisfaction, the survey found the satisfaction gap between the citywide response and those in the most deprived areas is continuing to close, with resources being prioritised towards the most vulnerable.
Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, said: ‘This year’s results provide us with a challenging but understandable picture of how residents feel about Bristol. The COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of continued underfunding from national government continue to have an impact on all our lives.
‘I’m encouraged to see that we are putting council resources where they’re needed most and that our efforts are going some way to making the city a more equal place to live. This is confirmed with the satisfaction from deprived areas generally increasing from last year. But there is always more we must do as we work together to build a cleaner, greener and fairer city, for all Bristolians.’
The survey analysed the responses of almost 3,900 randomly selected people living in Bristol.
The Council concluded that Covid-19 is likely to have contributed to the results, with people reporting being significantly less satisfied with their quality of life, local area, and how often they see family and friends, as well as reporting their mental health as below average.
There was however a significant increase in satisfaction scores for local parks, with more people saying they visit them at least once a week.
Overall, the results reveal that of the priority 50 indicators shown, 30 are worse than last year – 19 by a statistically significant amount.
The 2021-22 Quality of Life Priority Indicator results are available on the council website at www.bristol.gov.uk/qualityoflife.
The full report including all 190 indicators will be published in March.
In related news, a new report recommends urgent reforms to the UK’s social security system to protect low-income families from the cost of living crisis.
Photo by Chris Lawton