The Living Well Index: Why we’re doing this 

The Living Well Index: Why we’re doing this 

22 May 2018

Our ambition at Sainsbury’s has always been to help our customers live well for less – it’s been the premise of the company since we began. But, what does it really mean to live well? How well are we really living as a nation, and why? These questions are fundamental to us all and yet remain relatively underexplored.

To explore these questions, we commissioned a study in September 2017 to help us define, measure and track, over a number of years, what it means to live well in Britain. We worked with Oxford Economics and NatCen Social Research to interview 8,250 adults across Great Britain with a 60-question survey. We measured how well people were living, and we combined the results into a study that we call the Living Well Index.

Our first Living Well Index offered fresh insights into the state of the nation and explained some key differences between people who were living very well and people who were struggling to do so. For example, we learned that sleep quality was the number one factor that determined how well a person is living – and the impact of better quality sleep was greater than having four times as much disposable income.

"The Index will help to inform how we run our business and will also help us uncover and engage more boldly on the issues that concern people most in their everyday lives."

Mike Coupe, CEO, Sainsbury’s

With this Index, we can now begin to understand what ‘living well’ means to people across the UK today. And because we update the Index every six months and question the same group of individuals, we will be able to eventually understand the factors which cause us to feel better or worse about our lives.

We aim to understand what can help us – as individuals and as a society – to lead better, more fulfilling lives. Of course, what we can control in life will vary from person to person, but understanding what causes us to live well is the first step to helping us live better. We ultimately want to go further, by also helping to create solutions to the challenges that are keeping people from living well. 

We hope the Living Well Index provides information to people, policymakers and other groups supporting society to help more people live happier, more satisfying lives. We look forward to working with others in businesses, government, civil society and academia to make this happen.

Above all, the Sainsbury’s Living Well Index is about – and for – everyone. Anyone who’s interested can get their own Living Well score and some simple suggestions for how they can improve their score by visiting www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/living-well-index