As part of the Mayor's Social Integration Strategy published in March 2018, one of the commitments was to develop a more comprehensive set of measures for social integration and to carry out bespoke and innovative data collection for London to achieve this. This scoping study conducted by the Centre for Analysis of Social Media at Demos and commissioned by the GLA is the first step towards looking at more innovative data collection methods. The report highlights the potential opportunities and pitfalls in using digital and online data in measuring social integration in London, identifies a diverse selection of sources available and provides an outline of potential use cases for this data across the breadth of social integration measures. A handy one-page matrix of all of the evaluated sources is also available to download separately.

The Mayor of London has placed a high priority on improving social integration, equality, diversity and inclusion, economic fairness and food security across the city. Recognising the need for better evidence in these areas to ensure that policy and programmes have maximum impact, the GLA conducted the Survey of Londoners in 2018-19, an online and paper self-completion survey of adults aged 16 and over in London. The Survey, which received responses from 6,601 Londoners, aims to fill evidence gaps and help improve analysis and policy making in these areas. It uses questions that allow for comparison with existing London and national data, and has a larger sample size than regular opinion polling. This offers a more accurate picture of society in London and allows for detailed and robust analysis of sub-groups within London’s population. This initial report provides descriptive results for the key headline measures and supporting demographic data collected by the Survey. Accompanying this report are more detailed tables documenting the key results of the survey by a range of demographic and other characteristics, and a short summary document presenting key findings from the survey. The record-level Survey of Londoners dataset can be accessed via the UK Data Service, University of Essex. The dataset is available for not-for-profit educational and research purposes only. The GLA has completed work on a second survey of Londoners, conducted in 2021-22. The findings from that survey can be accessed from this link.

The Mayor of London committed to developing a London Wellbeing and Sustainability Measure in his 2021 manifesto. This was to help measure London’s success as a place to live and work for all its residents. It would counteract the fact that, for years, London’s success has been mostly measured only in terms of its material wealth. GLA City Intelligence led the development of this measure of wellbeing and sustainability. It brings together data on the multiple aspects of our lives that form the basis of our collective wellbeing. This enables us to track which aspects of our lives are getting better over time and focus on the areas that need improvement. The London Wellbeing and Sustainability Framework was developed through a review of frameworks used by other cities, liaising with likely users of the measure to understand how it could inform their work, and by conducting in-depth qualitative research with a range of Londoners to ensure it reflects the things that matter to people. From this, City Intelligence produced a draft framework, a qualitative research report based on research with Londoners between December 2021 and January 2022, and a community engagement report based on roundtables with community groups in January 2022. Following this, in August 2022, City Intelligence produced a draft proposal for a measure, which included a document setting out the work undertaken so far and how this had led to the proposals, and a document providing further supporting detail on the recommended data for the measure. In January 2023, City Intelligence held a key stakeholder consultation involving boroughs and London organisations to refine its proposal and finalise the draft framework. You can download detailed reports below on this participatory research process we underwent with Londoners. In October 2023, City Intelligence officially launched the London Wellbeing and Sustainability Measure . This followed an intensive period of data collation of a wide array of London's data on wellbeing, which we have made available via the Data Explorer tool . If you have any questions regarding the London Wellbeing and Sustainability Measure, please get in touch by sending an email to socialevidence@london.gov.uk.