Published by Simetrica-Jacobs and the London School of Economics and Political Science, May 2020

Authors: Dr Daniel Fujiwara, Professor Paul Dolan, Dr Ricky Lawton, Dr Fatemeh Behzadnejad, Augustin Lagarde, Cem Maxwell, Sebastien Peytrignet

This report looks at the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of people in the U.K. It finds “substantially worse” levels of wellbeing and psychological distress across the U.K. in April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Levels of all measures of wellbeing are at the lowest in the U.K. since records began in 2011 and many parts of the population are over the threshold for psychiatric morbidity.

The costs of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures on mental health and wellbeing were calculated to have an indicative monetary value to the U.K. of £2.25 billion ($2.8bn) per day, equivalent to £43 ($53) per adult each day. This is the net cost as both the positive and negative effects of COVID-19 and social distancing were included in the analysis.