The life experience of people with a disability can be very different from those without a disability. They can face barriers in accessing services that many take for granted, including health, education, employment, and transport. The research for the 2017 Disability Strategy highlighted how such challenges contribute to significant differences in life satisfaction between disabled Islanders and the rest of the population. This indicator uses data from the Jersey Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, which surveys a representative sample of adults in Jersey, to track how this gap in life satisfaction changes over time.

The survey asks respondents to score themselves between 0 to 10 in answer to the question: ‘Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?’, with zero being not at all satisfied and ten being completely satisfied. This indicator focuses on the difference in the percentage of the population with a high life satisfaction (7 to 10) between (a) Islanders with a long-term condition that affects their daily lives and (b) the rest of the population.

For adults without a long-standing condition that affects their day-to-day lives, 71% scored their life satisfaction as 7 or more out of 10. The equivalent for those with a long-term condition that affects their day-to-day lives was 50%. Hence, the gap would be 21%.