Britain will introduce a "happiness index" to gaugeits population's psychological and environmental wellbeing, a government source told the Guardian newspaper Monday.

　　Prime Minister David Cameron will ask the Office of National Statistics to prepare methods which will measure the "general wellbeing" despite reservations about the timing.

　　"The aim is to produce a fresh set of data ... to be published at a frequency to be decided that assesses the psychological and physical wellbeing of people around the UK," the source told the paper.

　　"That's objective measurements of, for instance, how much recycling gets done around the UK, alongside more subjective measures of psychology and attitudes."

　　Cameron is expected to put the index at the heart of future policy-making, but is in danger of receiving unwelcome results following the government's recent announcement of deep cuts to the public sector.

　　Canada is investigating the viability of adopting of a similar initiative and French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced last year that he intended to use happiness levels as one method of assessing the country's economic progress.

　　Britain already polls the public on their life satisfaction levels, but could become the first country to officially monitor its general happiness.

据《卫报》报道，英国政府内部人士本周一透漏，英国将引入“幸福指数”，以评估国民的心理健康状况和对环境的满意度。

　　英国首相戴维 卡梅伦将请国家统计局制定出衡量国民“总体幸福程度”的方法，但具体时间目前尚不可知。

　　知情人士告诉《卫报》说：“此举的目的在于产生一套新的数据，并定期发布，以评估英国各地居民的身心健康状况，不过发布频率尚未确定。

　　“这一评估既有客观测量标准，例如英国各地循环利用的情况，也有对居民的心理状况和心态等主观因素进行的测评。”

　　卡梅伦想要把这项评估指数置于未来决策过程的核心地位。但是，由于近期政府宣布要大幅削减公共部门开支，他将面临着不受欢迎的危险。

　　加拿大也在调查引入类似的方案的可行性，法国总统尼古拉斯 萨科奇去年就曾宣布，有意将幸福度作为评估法国经济发展的标准之一。

　　英国已经就公众的生活满意度进行了民意调查，而且，也可能成为首个由官方出面调查国民总体幸福指数的国家。