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Wellbeing of Wales Report 2025: A Decade of Progress and Reflection

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Link to Report: Cymraeg         English

This year marks a significant milestone in Wales’s journey towards a more sustainable and equitable future. It is ten years since the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 came into force, a world-leading piece of legislation that continues to shape how we measure and improve national wellbeing.

The Wellbeing of Wales 2025 report builds on this foundation, providing a comprehensive overview of progress towards the seven well-being goals. As ever, the report brings together the latest evidence across a wide range of topics, from health and education to environment and economy, helping us understand where we’re making strides and where further effort is needed.

What’s new this year?

We’ve made changes to the report’s format to make it more concise and accessible, based on feedback from readers and usage data. We’ve also expanded the scope in some areas, including reporting for the first time on the justice national indicator, which was added to the indicator set in 2021.

Looking ahead, Welsh Ministers have agreed that the national wellbeing indicators should be reviewed once every Senedd term. This means we expect to begin a review after the next Senedd election in 2026. We hope you’ll take part in shaping the next phase of this important work.

As we reflect on a decade of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, this report offers a timely opportunity to take stock, celebrating progress, acknowledging challenges, and renewing our commitment to improving the lives of current and future generations in Wales.

Key findings include:

  • Economic performance has been mixed, with some signs of recovery but continued challenges in lower-paid sectors
  • Income poverty has declined over the long term, children remain more likely to be affected
  • Qualification levels are rising. More young people are engaged in education, employment or training
  • Air and water quality have improved, but biodiversity and resource use continue to present challenges
  • Health outcomes are mixed, with falling healthy life expectancy and persistent inequalities
  • The gender pay gap has narrowed, though other disparities (such as those linked to ethnicity and disability) were unchanged
  • Volunteering has increased, but homelessness and public concern about crime have also risen
  • Adult engagement with arts and culture remains steady, while participation among children has declined
  • Greenhouse gas emissions continue to fall, although Wales’s ecological footprint remains unsustainable

Progress on national milestones

The report also tracks progress towards the national milestones. Of the 20 assessments made across the 17 milestones half showed improvement since 2015.

However, the pace of change will need to accelerate in some areas to meet the 2050 targets.

How Will You Use this Blog to Communicate the Well-being of Future Generations Act?

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Sut mae? We hope you’ve been having a successful and learning-full time as we commemorate the tenth Anniversary of the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

This is first blog post in a while and we’re please to be back posting through this Blog. Stay tuned for future updates on the Wellbeing of Wales Report 2025 and the Future Trends Report.

Here in Welsh Government, we have been using this opportunity to improve our communications around the Act. We have developed an internal WFG communications plan that is shared between several teams. This plan will support the re-fresh of our Continuous Learning and Improvement Plan (CLIP 2026-29).

The main focus of the plan is on using the Act to maximise re-engagement, enchantment and re-energising ourselves to do our work in a more sustainable way. We’ve been looking at the Act with fresh eyes to (further) deepen our understanding and application of the Sustainable Development Principle and the Five Ways of Working.

Working with the Future Generations Commissioner and others, we have created new tools which we want to share. We hope that you, too, will use and share these with others. We welcome feedback and collaboration on how to make best use of them.

Some great tools and opportunities already exist. We have been coming back to some of these and sharing our experiences with colleagues.

What’s new on the scene?

All the tools and opportunities above combine to make a strong suite that we draw on throughout our day jobs, careers, volunteering and other roles. They can be used by individuals or within teams, organisations and communities throughout Wales.

In Welsh Government, we’re using a simple system of inviting leadership and project teams to engage with one of the items above and to meet to talk about it together.

…and we’re not finished yet. Again in collaboration with others, watch this space for new websites about the practices that underpin the Act. Coming soon!