The Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysed responses from more than 2,000 people to David Cameron's initiative to measure the nation's wellbeing.
The emerging results showed that job security, personal health and relationships with family members were at the top of most people's concerns, and were cited by nine out of 10 of those responding to the ONS consultation.
Other key ingredients of a happy life were parents' sense of the security of their children's future, with couples keen that their children have a good life and a nice place to live; the freedom of society; and spiritual and religious beliefs.
Respondents were more likely to rate having a job as important to them than being paid a high salary.
Anastasia de Waal, a social policy analyst at the think tank Civitas, said employment was central to people's sense of identity and wellbeing.
"A job is about your life, it is not about your income," she said.
"It is about every aspect – having the motivation to get up in the morning, self-esteem and being a role model to your children. Income is almost secondary to that.
"People's lives fall apart if they don't have a job. They are much more likely to be depressed if they are out of work, and there is a strong relationship between unemployment and family breakdown and health difficulties."
The Prime Minister launched the programme in November, in an attempt to create a broader measure of Britain's success than the performance of the economy.
Mr Cameron said governments had a role in helping people "feel better" and that the national wellbeing index should help politicians and wider society "build a better life".
Paul Allin, director of the wellbeing project at the ONS, said the initiative would combine objective data, such as crime, employment and life expectancy rates, with subjective measures, such as fear of crime, job satisfaction and self-reported health, to give "a more complete picture of national wellbeing".
"We want to encourage people to tell us what matters to them," he said.
"The more responses we have to the debate, the more realistic a picture of the UK we will have."
The ONS consultation will run until April.
