Weather and Happiness

Sad to see the end of Semester 2 and the year!

The final submission was challenging, a good one too. I explored whether weather affects happiness using UK wellbeing data from the ONS (2011–2014).

After cleaning and aggregating responses from over 400 areas, I found that happiness levels rose slightly across the UK—by 0.17 points on a 10-point scale. Northern Ireland saw the biggest boost, and no region declined.

I then merged this data with annual weather stats using location coordinates. Surprisingly, the expected links between sun or temperature and happiness were weak or inconsistent. In 2011, higher temps slightly correlated with happiness (+0.23), but that dropped or reversed in later years.

The takeaway? Long-term happiness trends likely reflect broader societal changes more than daily weather. This project reminded me how data can challenge our assumptions in unexpected ways.

The next steps? Reflect in the good summer weather to see if it impacts MY happiness.

The project will be uploaded in time after a little recovery time :)