If you are male, live in the North of England, are under the age of 35 and have no children, count yourself lucky – this January was particularly joyful for you … however, you are not alone – research shows that the UK’s joy levels were ‘resolutely joyful’ for most people, according to the daily JoyIndex index.
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The JoyIndex research revealed:
- January was not the gloomy month it is often supposed to be with a joy rating of 75% in January.
- The happiest day of the month was Tuesday 6 January, measuring 86% on the JoyIndex, showing that people look forward to returning to work after the holidays.
- Monday 12th January was recorded as the most miserable day of the month, with levels of happiness falling to 64%.
- For women, the happiest day of the month was on Tuesday 13th January when 86% of women were joyful. The happiest day for men was Friday 9th January, with a 90% joy rating.
- We enjoy work more than we think we do! 72% were happy on 5th January (the first day back to the office for most) with joy levels rising the following day to the highest score of the month on Tuesday 6th January.
- Although Mondays were consistently the lowest scoring day of the week, the so-called ‘Blue Mondays’ of 19th and 26th January were outranked in terms of gloom by Monday 12 January.
- People with children were marginally less happy than their childless counterparts, with a tiny 2% difference. For parents the 13th January was probably the happiest day – 90% of parents polled that day were happy.
- Payday at the end of January sparked a surge in joy at 81% on 29 January.
- The JoyIndex has shown that joy levels among people in the South tracked an average 2% higher than among people in the North.
Results were displayed on JCDecaux’s digital screens nationwide and via social media on the beframeus Facebook [2] and Twitter [3] pages.