Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: 20 September to 1 October 2023

The following information is for the latest survey period 20 September to 1 October 2023, based on adults in Great Britain.

• When asked about the important issues facing the UK today, the most commonly reported issues continued to be the cost of living (90%), the NHS (86%), the economy (72%), climate change and the environment (62%) and housing (58%).

• More than half (54%) of adults reported that their cost of living had increased compared with a month ago, while 44% reported it had stayed the same and 2% said it had decreased.

• More than 9 in 10 (94%) adults who reported their cost of living had increased compared to one month ago reported the price of their food shop had increased, 65% reported the price of their fuel had increased and 58% reported their gas or electricity bills had increased.

• When asked about what people are doing because of the increases in the cost of living, 65% said they were spending less on non-essentials, around half of all adults (48%) were shopping around more, 47% of adults were using less fuel such as gas or electricity in their homes, and more than 4 in 10 (44%) were spending less on food shopping and essentials.

• Among those currently paying rent or a mortgage, almost a half (47%) of adults reported that their rent or mortgage payments had gone up in the past 6 months; this has increased from 33% during a similar period one year ago (29 September to 9 October 2022).

• Among those who are currently paying rent or a mortgage, 40% reported finding it very or somewhat difficult affording these payments; this is up from 30% during a similar period one year ago (29 September to 9 October 2022).

• Of those who pay energy bills, around 4 in 10 (43%) adults reported it being very or somewhat difficult to afford energy bills; this is the same as in a similar period last year (29 September to 9 October 2022).

This release contains data and indicators from the Office for National Statistics' (ONS's) Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN).

From the 16 June 2023 release onwards, we have made changes that reduce the scope of the release and accompanying datasets. This is based on a routine review of the relevance and usefulness of this release.

Breakdowns by age and sex are no longer provided for fortnightly estimates in the latest Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain datasets. All previous versions of the dataset remain available from this page. Estimates from the OPN by these and other personal characteristics will continue to be provided on a regular basis in other ONS releases. For example, OPN estimates relating to the impact of cost of living among different sub-groups of the population are provided within the regular Impact of increased cost of living on adults across Great Britain series.

Confidence intervals are provided for all estimates in the datasets. Where changes in results from previous weeks are presented in this release, or comparisons between estimates are made, associated confidence intervals should be used to assess the statistical significance of the differences.

Sampling and weighting

In the latest period (20 September to 1 October 2023), we sampled 4,963 households. This sample was randomly selected from people who had previously completed the Labour Market Survey (LMS) or OPN. The responding sample for the latest period contained 2,364 individuals, representing a 47.6% response rate.

Survey weights were applied to make estimates representative of the population (based on ONS population estimates). Further information on the survey design and quality can be found in our Opinions and Lifestyle Survey Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).