Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: 30 March to 24 April 2022

In the latest period, 13 to 24 April 2022, based on adults in Great Britain:

• around 9 in 10 (91%) adults reported their cost of living had risen (88% in the previous period; 30 March to 10 April 2022), continuing the increase since we first started asking this question in the period 3 to 14 November 2021, when this was 62%.
• the most common reasons reported by adults who said their cost of living had increased in the latest period were an increase in the price of food shopping (92%), an increase in gas or electricity bills (86%), and an increase in the price of fuel (80%).
• among those who pay energy bills, 4 in 10 (40%) said they found it very or somewhat difficult to afford their energy bills (37% in the previous period).
• around 4 in 10 (39%) adults reported that in the past two weeks they were buying less food when food shopping (34% in the previous period) with 44% of adults reporting they had to spend more than usual to get what they normally buy (37% in the previous period).
• when asked whether they had experienced shortages of goods in the past two weeks, around 2 in 10 (21%) reported being unable to buy non-essential food (17% in the previous period).
• around two in five (39%) adults reported they were very or somewhat worried about the effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on their lives right now.

Estimates in this release are based on data collected between 13 and 24 April 2022, (the “latest period") and 30 March and 10 April 2022 (the “previous period").

We continued to ask adults about changes in their cost of living over the last month, with 91% reporting it had increased in the latest period, compared with 88% in the previous period. The proportion of adults reporting this has gradually increased since we first started asking this question in November 2021, when 62% of adults reported this (3 to 14 November 2021). People's experiences of cost of living increases may have been affected by the recent increase to the energy price cap from 1 April 2022.

Looking at this by age group, the proportion of adults reporting an increase in their cost of living in the latest period was lowest among those aged 16 to 29 (81%). This proportion was higher among all other age groups (93% among those aged 30 to 49 years, 94% among those aged 50 to 69 years and 91% among those aged 70 years and over).

Since November 2021, the proportion of adults who think they would not be able to save any money in the next 12 months has gradually increased; 42% in the latest period compared with 34% in November 2021. The percentage who reported their household could not afford to pay an unexpected, but necessary, expense of £850 has been more stable; 26% in the latest period, compared with 27% in November 2021 (Figure 1).

The most common reasons reported by adults who said their cost of living had increased in the latest period were:

• an increase in the price of food shopping (92% compared with 90% in the previous period)
• an increase in gas or electricity bills (86% compared with 80% in the previous period)
• an increase in the price of fuel (80% compared with 78% in the previous period)

The most common actions reported by adults who said their cost of living had increased were:

• spending less on non-essentials (59%)
• using less fuel such as gas or electricity at home (54%)
• cutting back on non-essential journeys in my vehicle (44%)
• shopping around more (34%)

Paying energy bills

Among those who pay energy bills, 4 in 10 (40%) said they found it very or somewhat difficult to afford them (37% in the previous period). In comparison, around half (51%) reported it was very or somewhat easy to afford their energy bills (52% in the previous period).

Among those who said they have gas or electricity supplied to their home, 3% reported they were behind on these bills (4% in the previous period).

These data were collected between 30 March and 24 April 2022, a period during which there was an increase in the domestic energy tariff cap on 1 April 2022.

There are strong seasonal spending patterns relating to gas and electricity that may affect the results presented in this section. For more information on this and recent price rises for gas and electricity, please see our latest Consumer price inflation bulletin for March 2022.

Further demographic breakdowns of estimates in this bulletin are available within the accompanying Public opinions and social trends datasets.

In this period, we continued to ask adults whether they had experienced shortages of any goods at any time in the past two weeks:

• one in five (20%) adults reported being unable to buy fuel in the previous two weeks, an increase from 8% in the previous period and from around 3% at the beginning of 2022 (6 to 16 January 2022)
• less than 1 in 20 (3%) of adults reported being unable to buy medicine (3% in the previous period, 5% at the beginning of 2022)
• Around 1 in 10 (12%) reported being unable to buy essential food (12% previous period, 16% at the beginning of 2022)
• Around 2 in 10 (21%) reported being unable to buy other non-essential food (17% in the previous period, 20% at the beginning of 2022)

Around 4 in 10 (39%) adults reported that in the past two weeks they were buying less food when food shopping. This proportion appears to be growing, having been 34% in the previous period and 18% at the beginning of 2022. Over 4 in 10 (44%) adults said they had to spend more than usual to get what they normally buy (37% in the previous period; 19% at the beginning of 2022).

Levels of personal well-being were:

• life satisfaction (7.0 in the latest period and 6.9 in the previous period)
• feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile (7.2 in the latest period and the previous period)
• happiness (7.2 in the latest period and 6.9 in the previous period)
• anxiety (3.9 in the latest period and 4.1 in the previous period)

Our previous research on personal well-being has shown seasonal variation in levels of personal well-being during the period around Easter. This may have had an impact on well-being levels in this release.

These estimates of personal well-being may differ from those in our Personal well-being in the UK, quarterly: April 2011 to September 2021, based on the Annual Population Survey. To find out more about the difference between these two data sources, you can view our data collection changes due to the pandemic and their impact on estimating personal well-being methodology.

Figure 2: Levels of personal well-being remained relatively stable

Adults in Great Britain, March 2020 to April 2022

Notes:

1. Questions: "Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?", "Overall, to what extent do you feel that the things you do in your life are worthwhile?", "Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?", and "Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?". 2. These questions are answered on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is "not at all" and 10 is "completely".
2. Base: all adults.
3. Changes were made to the OPN design from 30 March 2022, which resulted in small changes to the responding sample. We therefore advise caution with comparing estimates provided for periods from 30 March 2022 with estimates for earlier periods.

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This section provides the latest estimates of preventative measures used by adults in Great Britain to live with and manage the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as well as other illnesses.

From the period 30 March to 10 April 2022, changes were made to the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) to enable us to provide ongoing indicators on a wide range of public opinion and societal issues.

Survey questions regarding the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and preventative measures taken as a result were broadened to cover other illnesses.

These include changes to question wording, response options and routing. Because of these changes, the estimates provided in this section for the latest and previous period are not directly comparable with estimates for periods prior to this.

Worries about coronavirus (COVID-19)

Around two in five (39%) adults reported they were very or somewhat worried about the effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on their lives right now. This is a decrease from 48% in the previous period.

Face coverings

In the latest period, 65% of adults reported they wore a face covering when outside their home in the past seven days (this question was not asked in the previous period). Among adults who used public transport, 49% said they wore a face covering for their whole journey in the past seven days; this is similar to 48% in the previous period.

Social distancing

Nearly 4 in 10 (38%) adults reported they always or often maintained social distancing when outside their home in the past seven days (42% in the previous period).

Lateral flow testing

Among adults, more than 3 in 10 (34%) reported they had taken a rapid lateral flow test in the past seven days, compared with 43% in the previous period. Almost 9 in 10 (89%) adults said they were very or fairly likely to be tested if they had COVID-19 symptoms in the latest period.

These data were collected between 30 March and 24 April 2022. From April 1, the UK government is no longer providing free universal testing for the general public in England. There is also different guidance around testing in Wales and also different guidance in Scotland.

Staying at home

A lower percentage (3%) of adults reported staying at home because they did not want to spread COVID-19 in the past seven days (6% in the previous period).

The main reasons these adults reported for staying at home in the latest period were:

• they had tested positive for COVID-19 (85%)
• they had been unwell and didn’t want to spread it to others (68%)
• they had COVID-19 symptoms (45%)
• they had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19 (18%)

This release contains data and indicators from a module being undertaken through the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS') Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN).

From the period 30 March to 10 April 2022, changes were made to the OPN to enable us to provide ongoing indicators on a wide range of public opinion and societal issues.

Changes were made to the OPN survey design, for example, sample size, the questionnaire, and financial incentives to participate. These changes may result in small changes to the responding sample. We therefore advise caution with comparing estimates from this period onwards with those published prior to this period.

Breakdowns by age and sex, including confidence intervals for the estimates, are contained in the Public opinion and social trends, Great Britain datasets. Breakdowns by region are no longer provided within these datasets because of the smaller responding sample size of the OPN survey.

Where changes in results from previous weeks are presented in this bulletin, associated confidence intervals should be used to assess the statistical significance of the differences.

Sampling and weighting

In the latest period (13 to 24 April 2022), we sampled 4,978 households. In the previous period (30 March to 10 April 2022), we sampled 4,962 households. These samples were randomly selected from those that had previously completed the Labour Market Survey (LMS) or OPN.

The responding sample for the latest period contained 2,310 individuals, representing a 46.4% response rate. The responding sample for the previous period contained 2,480 individuals, representing a 50.0% response rate. This is a reduction compared with previous response rates of around 70.0%, partly owing to the removal of financial incentives awarded for responding to the OPN survey.

Survey weights were applied to make estimates representative of the population (based on June 2021 population estimates). Further information on the survey design and quality can be found in our Opinions and Lifestyle Survey Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).