Politicians must do more to close the gap between young and old after a landmark study revealed alarming differences in wellbeing, a charity warns.

A survey of almost 7,000 people for Carnegie UK found over-55s consistently reported better standards of living than younger generations. Sarah Davidson, its chief executive, said: “Our new Life in the UK index highlights an alarming gap between the life experience of young and old in our country.

“Younger age groups report poorer air quality and a lack of local green space.

“UK decision-makers need to work harder to close the wellbeing gap between young and old. While that means looking at tax and welfare policies, we must also look at ways of hardwiring younger people’s interests and priorities into our public policy.” The survey asked questions on economic, social, environmental and democratic topics to calculate a wellbeing score of up to 100.

While the national average was 62, the over-55s scored 65 and the 16 to 34-year-olds averaged 59.

Those aged 35-54 hit 60. Ms Davidson noted overall scores for all age groups were brought down by poor scores on “democratic wellbeing” with even older generations feeling disconnected.

Some 73% of all participants felt they could not influence national decisions, while 56% said the same for local matters.