The annual Wellbeing of Wales report was published on 26 September 2024. The report provides an update on wellbeing in Wales to help us assess whether we are making progress against the seven national well-being goals set out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. The report considers progress against the 50 national indicators, alongside a range of other relevant data. The report is a key accountability mechanism, to be transparent about the progress Wales is making towards its well-being goals.

As in 2023, an easy read report has been published in addition to the main report to help ensure everyone is able to access statistical information about Wales.

Last year, we published a separate report on ethnicity and wellbeing, alongside the main Wellbeing of Wales report, following a report on children and wellbeing the year before. We are committed to producing supplementary reports alongside the main report where there is a clear user need to do so. However, this year we focussed on other ways of improving how we communicate progress towards the well-being goals.

A new way of communicating progress

As we approach the 10 year anniversary of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, we have considered how we can continue to provide new insight and improved ways of communicating progress towards the well-being goals. Building on feedback from users, this year we are experimenting with a new way of showing progress, focusing on the 17 national milestones. The milestones are generational targets which describe the pace and scale of change needed in key areas under the seven well-being goals. We have looked at the data for each milestone since 2015, which was when the Well-being of Future Generations Act came into force, and assessed whether the trend has been improving or not since that date.

Some of the 17 milestones have multiple parts to them, so in total we made 21 assessments of progress. 10 of these showed an improvement since 2015, suggesting that Wales is heading in the right direction towards the milestone. However in some cases, even though the trend may be moving in the right direction, we will need to move faster to reach the target by 2050. 5 milestones showed a deterioration, 5 showed little or no change, and for one milestone progress couldn’t be assessed because there was only one year of data. In most cases, the milestones continued to follow a longer term trend that was established before 2015.

You can read more about the approach we have taken in the national milestones chapter of the Well-being of Wales report. As this is a new way of presenting this information, we are keen to hear your feedback on whether this helps you understand progress towards the well-being goals. Please send your feedback to Highpriorityprojects.stats@gov.wales.

The Well-being of Wales page contains links to all previous Well-being of Wales reports, as well as data used in the reports, quality information, and national indicators.