Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: 28 February to 10 March 2024

The following information is for the latest survey period 28 February to 10 March 2024, based on adults in Great Britain.

• When asked about the important issues facing the UK today, the most commonly reported issues were; the cost of living (87%), the NHS (83%) and the economy (67%).

• Climate change and the environment (57%), housing (56%), crime (55%), international conflict (48%) and immigration (47%) were other commonly reported important issues facing the UK today.

• Around 1 in 8 adults (13%) reported they were often or always able to recognise when they were using AI; this proportion appears to have remained stable since we first asked the question in November 2023 (15% in the period 1 to 12 November 2023).

• Just under half of adults (46%) reported their cost of living had increased over the last month, this proportion has gradually decreased since April 2023 (76% in the period 22 March to 2 April 2023); around half (51%) said their cost of living had remained the same over the last month, with 3% saying it had decreased.

Among adults who told us that their cost of living had increased over the last month:

• Rises in the price of their food shopping (89%), their gas and electricity bills (67%) or their fuel (55%) continue to be the most commonly reported reasons for an increase in their cost of living.

• The proportion reporting the price of their fuel had increased (55%) has gradually risen since the start of 2024 (41% in the period 4 to 14 January 2024).

• The proportion reporting the price of their gas or electricity bills had increased (67%) has gradually fallen since the start of 2024 (85% in the period 4 to 14 January 2024).

Among adults who pay energy bills:

• Around 4 in 10 (39%) reported finding it very or somewhat difficult to afford them; this proportion was at its highest in spring 2023 (49% in the period 17 to 29 May 2023).

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 made changes that reduced the scope of the release and accompanying datasets. This was 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 continue to be provided on a regular basis in other ONS releases. For example, OPN estimates relating to the impact of the 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 (28 February to 10 March 2024), we sampled 4,952 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 2,268 individuals, representing a 46% response rate. In the latest period, online data collection was interrupted for a short time on the 6 and 7 March because of a server issue.

Survey weights were applied to make estimates representative of the population (based on ONS population estimates). Because of sampling changes in July 2023, some groups in our unweighted sample may be over-represented. Further information on the survey design and quality can be found in our Opinions and Lifestyle Survey Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).