PEOPLE who take the time to chat over the fence to their neighbours, have plenty of sex in a stable relationship and care about endangered species tend to be happier, according to a report by Tony Blair’s “department for happiness”.

Gardening, praying and going for walks are also all linked to broader smiles, says the study, written by a professor of economics at Imperial College London’s Tanaka Business School and circulated to ministers and senior civil servants.

The attempt to quantify what the report calls “SWB” — a personal “sense of wellbeing” — is part of a move by all the main political parties to go beyond purely financial measures of wellbeing in setting goals for policy.

The Whitehall Wellbeing Working Group (W3G for short), a committee of civil servants, has been charged with finding out how ministers can make citizens more cheerful. The report was commissioned by the environment department, which is leading the Whitehall effort. It consists of a review of research carried out around the world into the factors influencing happiness and how governments can affect it.

Paul Dolan, lead author of the report, said that while the evidence on happiness could be assessed, the practical implications for policy were likely to prove far more contentious.

“It’s shown that married people are happier — so what does that mean for politics? Does it follow that we should be encouraging people to marry?” asked Dolan, whose next task for the government is to draw up a reliable “happiness unit” to measure wellbeing. He added: “Is that the realm of politics . . . or something that should be left to individual choice?”

While the idea of a Whitehall-defined unit of happiness may not fill that many people with joy, its supporters hope that by pinpointing what makes people happy, taxpayers’ money could be spent with greater effect on national wellbeing.

“If the aim of policy were to alleviate misery, there may be some justification for targeting women as they tend to exhibit higher levels of depression.”

A good night’s sleep and “more time spent socialising” are linked to contentment, as is being of average height and weight.

Light rain has no effect, but anything more starts to get depressing. “Extreme weather is detrimental to happiness,” the study finds. Unsurprisingly, so is being dumped by one’s spouse, getting the sack and living in a heavily polluted area.

Not all the results make cheerful reading. Dolan finds no conclusive evidence that having children or being well educated increases happiness.

The study discovered that personal advancement is far sweeter if denied to others — winning a salary increase boosts happiness more if one’s peers lose out.

For anyone hoping that life begins at 40, the report is encouraging — happiness follows a U-shaped curve, bottoming out at the ages of 35-50.

Dolan said that happiness science is often bedevilled by a “chicken-and-egg” question. For instance, if happy people tend to trust people more, it is not clear whether trusting people produces happy feelings, or whether people who are already happy tend to be more trusting.

Last year David Cameron, the Conservative leader, jumped aboard the happiness bandwagon when he said: “We have to remember what makes people happy, as well as what makes stock markets rise. It’s time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB — general wellbeing.”

Although the government has not yet reached many specific conclusions, the health department is working on advice to primary care trusts on promoting wellbeing.

The environment department added that the transport and culture ministries were also “interested” in measuring how their policies affected people’s happiness. Meanwhile, the Department of Trade and Industry has just launched a two-year research project into “Mental Capital and Wellbeing”, which, said Defra, “aims to produce a challenging and long-term vision that maximises mental capital in the UK in the 21st century for the benefit of both individuals and society”.

Simon Parker, head of public services research at the think tank Demos, welcomed the new emphasis on wellbeing. He said: “You are starting to see politicians talking about issues that reflect how life isn’t just about cash . . . but it’s important to inject a note of realism, there is only a certain amount a government can do.”

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