Family and wider personal networks in the UK are fraying, according to new research that suggests the country’s relative prosperity masks growing strains in society.
The UK fares well overall in a global “Prosperity Index” published on Monday by the Legatum Institute. The think-tank said it ranked 11th out of 167 countries — up from 16th place a decade ago — on a broad set of measures that seek to capture collective wellbeing, ranging from security and personal freedoms to economic openness, governance, education and environmental conditions.
However, the report warned of “significant weakness in some key aspects of social capital”. Britain has slipped to 56th in the rankings for personal and family relationships — below Nordic countries, but also below Mongolia, Malta and Cuba — with people feeling less able to rely on help from family and friends when they are in trouble. Social networks have also weakened relative to other countries on survey measures of opportunities to make new friends and forge ties by helping other households.
“This matters because if you listen to the current UK debate, it is almost all economically focused,” said Philippa Stroud, a Conservative peer and chief executive of the Legatum Institute. “Economically, Britain is in a healthy place but we have been neglecting our social structures.”
She believes the report’s findings are consistent with other data showing that loneliness and mental health problems are becoming more widespread, with poverty levels rising in particular among single pensioners, adults living without a partner, and single parents.
Britain measures up relatively well in other areas of social capital, with people showing a high level of trust in, and willingness to help, strangers.
Stephen Brien, director of policy at the think-tank, said this was the aspect of social capital that often mattered most for commercial relations and economic success, as opposed to personal wellbeing.
Baroness Stroud said this could reflect a rise in tolerance of other groups and ethnicities over the past decade, as well as the effects of the rise in employment — with “a greater number of people drawing emotional strength from work colleagues, rather than family and friends in the community”.
The Legatum Institute’s index is one of many initiatives under way to develop new measures of economic wellbeing and move away from a narrow focus on gross domestic product.
Intangible social capital — often described as the glue that holds societies together — is seen as an essential element of this broader prosperity, although the concept is hard to pin down and measure.