Quantifying the relationship between climatic conditions and personal financial and health well-being

Publication type

Journal Article

Series Number

Authors

Publication date

January 23, 2026

Summary:

We address an important research gap by quantifying the association between weather conditions (sunshine, rainfall, temperature anomalies) and individual financial, mental and physical health self-assessments. We compile a unique dataset of observations (1991–2018) by matching individual-level data (covering 380 Local Authorities) from the British Household Panel & UK Household Longitudinal Surveys to monthly and daily data from 32 weather stations. We provide robust evidence that favourable climatic conditions are positively related to the likelihood of reporting higher well-being assessments, and negatively related to adverse conditions (particularly temperature anomalies). The estimated weather monetary cost reaches 15% of monthly household income.

Published in

Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.70036

ISSN

03059049

Subjects

Notes

Online Early

© 2026 Oxford University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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