The North West Mental Wellbeing Survey, launched in January 2010, was undertaken in response to a growing need to understand more about positive mental health and wellbeing.

With a total sample of 18,500 people across Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside, the survey is the largest, most significant and detailed investigation of the region’s mental health and wellbeing ever undertaken.

It identified differences between local areas, with people from Warrington emerging as having the highest overall mental wellbeing score in the North West and people in Liverpool the lowest.

The survey is the product of collaborative effort between primary care trusts and local authorities across the region and was led by the Strategic Health Authority (NHS North West), Department of Health and the North West Public Health Observatory.

The results reveal a clear link between general health and mental wellbeing. Those with relatively high mental wellbeing were three-and-a-half times more likely than those with relatively low mental wellbeing to say they were in very good health, while those with low mental wellbeing were nearly five times more likely to say that their health was very bad or bad than those with high mental wellbeing.