Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: January 2025

The following information is from data collected from 8 January to 2 February 2025, based on adults in Great Britain.

• When asked about the important issues facing the UK today, the most commonly reported issues were the NHS (86%), the cost of living (86%), the economy (71%), crime (60%), housing (57%), climate change and the environment (57%), and immigration (54%).

• Younger adults aged 16 to 29 years were more likely than older adults to report the cost of living, housing, employment, education and EU exit as important issues; older adults aged 70 years and over were more likely than younger adults to report the NHS, the economy, crime, immigration and international conflict.

Other questions included experiences of health, well-being, and loneliness:

• Around two-thirds of adults (65%) reported that their health was very good or good; with younger adults aged 16 to 29 years (72%) reporting better health than older adults aged 70 years and older (50%).

• One in four adults (25%) reported feeling lonely "often or always" or "some of the time" (7% often or always; 18% some of the time); a further one in four (24%) reported feeling lonely "occasionally", and around one in two adults (49%) reported feeling lonely "hardly ever" or "never".

• Average personal well-being scores for life satisfaction (7.0), feeling that things done in life are worthwhile (7.3), happiness (7.0), and anxiety (3.9) remained similar to one year ago (17 to 28 January 2024).

• Average ratings of hope for the future were lower for men (6.5) than women (6.7), and adults aged 16 to 29 years (6.2) compared with adults aged 30 to 49 years (6.7), adults aged 50 to 69 years (6.6), and adults aged 70 years and over (6.6).

In the latest period (8 January to 2 February 2025), the NHS (86%) and the cost of living (86%) remain the two most reported important issues facing the UK (Figure 1). While the proportion of all adults reporting the NHS as an important issue has generally remained stable since October 2022 (82%), the proportion of all adults reporting the cost of living has gradually decreased over the same period (93%).

The proportions of all adults reporting the economy (71%) and climate change and the environment (57%) as important issues facing the UK have also gradually decreased since October 2022, when these proportions were 79% and 66% respectively.

By contrast, the proportions of adults reporting crime (60%) and immigration (54%) as important issues facing the UK have increased compared with October 2022, (49% and 43%, respectively). Housing (57%) has remained stable as an important issue facing the UK since October 2022 (53%).

Figure 1: The NHS, the cost of living, and the economy have been the most commonly reported important issues facing the UK since October 2022

Proportion of adults reporting each important issue, Great Britain, October 2022 to January 2025

Notes

1. Question: "What do you think are important issues facing the UK today?". 
2. Base: All adults.
3. Respondents could select more than one option. Responses were presented in a randomised order to mitigate ordering bias. 
4. Estimates and associated confidence intervals for all response categories are provided in the datasets associated with this release.
5. The length of each data collection period presented in this time series may be different.

Important issues facing the UK by age and sex

Looking beyond all adults, some demographic groups consider different issues facing the UK to be more or less important than other groups.

In the latest period, the most commonly reported important issues by younger adults aged 16 to 29 years were:

• the cost of living (89%)
• the NHS (77%)
• housing (71%)
• the economy (62%)
• climate change and the environment (57%)

Younger adults aged 16 to 29 years were more likely than older adults aged 70 years and over to report the cost of living, housing, employment, education and EU exit as important issues.

The most commonly reported important issues for older adults aged 70 years and over were:

• the NHS (91%)
• the cost of living (80%)
• the economy (75%)
• crime (74%)
• immigration (73%)

Older adults aged 70 years and over were more likely than younger adults aged 16 to 29 years to report the NHS, the economy, crime, immigration and international conflict as important issues.

Figure 2: The cost of living and the NHS were the two most reported important issues across all age groups

Proportion of adults reporting each important issue by age and sex, Great Britain, 8 January to 2 February 2025

Notes

1. Question: "What do you think are important issues facing the UK today?".
2. Base: All adults.
3. Respondents could select more than one option. Responses were presented in a randomised order to mitigate ordering bias.
4. Estimates and associated confidence intervals for all response categories are provided in the datasets associated with this release.

Estimates of important issues by age group are available for all time periods collected in Table 27 of our Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: personal well-being and loneliness dataset.

Analysis also revealed differences in the importance men and women place on different issues facing the UK. Men were more likely than women to report the economy (73% of men compared with 68% of women) and EU exit (40% of men compared with 34% of women) as important issues. Women were more likely than men to report housing (60% of women compared with 54% of men), the NHS (89% of women compared with 83% of men) and the cost of living (88% of women compared with 83% of men).

These results should be treated with caution, as the important issues reporting has varied over time. See Table 26 of our Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: personal well-being and loneliness dataset.

In the latest period, around two-thirds of adults (65%) reported that their health was very good or good, similar to last year (69% in the period 17 to 28 January 2024).

Around one in two (50%) adults aged 70 years and over reported being in good or very good health. This was lower than other age groups (61% among adults aged 50 to 69 years, 73% among adults aged 30 to 49 years, 72% among adults aged 16 to 29 years). Men (63%) were also less likely to report being in good or very good health compared with women (67%).

We measure personal well-being through four main measures: "life satisfaction", "feeling the things done in life are worthwhile", "happiness yesterday", and "anxiety yesterday". Personal well-being data are presented as average scores on an 11-point scale (0 to 10). Higher life satisfaction, worthwhile and happiness indicate better well-being while lower anxiety scores also indicate better well-being.

For more information, see our Personal well-being user guidance.

Levels of personal well-being have remained similar to one year ago (17 to 28 January 2024), including:

• life satisfaction (7.0 in this period and 6.9 one year ago)
• feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile (7.3 in this period and 7.2 one year ago)
• happiness (7.0 in this period and 6.9 one year ago)
• anxiety (3.9 in this period and 3.9 one year ago)

Compared with adults aged 70 years and over, younger adults aged 16 to 29 years reported lower life satisfaction (6.7 compared with 7.4), feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile (6.8 compared with 7.8), happiness (6.6 compared with 7.5) and higher levels of anxiety (4.6 compared with 3.4).

These personal well-being estimates may differ from the headline personal well-being statistics based on the Annual Population Survey. Our data collection changes due to the pandemic and their impact on estimating personal well-being methodology details the differences between these two data sources.

The UK Measures of National Well-being dashboard provides an overview of well-being in the UK on an individual, community and national level.

Hope for the future

Estimates of how hopeful adults living in Great Britain feel about their future are included in this bulletin for the first time. Respondents were asked to rate their level of hopefulness on an 11-point scale from 0 to 10 when asked "Overall, how hopeful do you feel about your future?".

In the latest period, the average rating of hope for the future was 6.6 out of 10. This has remained consistent since we started publishing this measure (6.6 in period 5 to 28 July 2024). Average ratings of hope for the future were lower for men (6.5) than women (6.7). They were also lower for adults aged 16 to 29 years (6.2) compared with adults aged 30 to 49 years (6.7), adults aged 50 to 69 years (6.6), and adults aged 70 years and over (6.6).

In the latest period, one in four adults (25%) reported feeling lonely "often or always" or "some of the time" (7% often or always; 18% some of the time). This has remained relatively stable since we first started collecting data in March 2020 (23%). A further one in four (24%) reported feeling lonely "occasionally", and around one in two adults (49%) reported feeling lonely "hardly ever" or "never".

Younger adults consistently report higher levels of loneliness. Of adults aged 16 to 29 years, 4 in 10 (40%) reported feeling lonely "often or always" or "some of the time" compared with around 3 in 10 (29%) adults aged 30 to 49 years, 2 in 10 (17%) adults aged 50 to 69 years and 2 in 10 (17%) adults aged 70 years and over. Women (27%) reported feeling lonely often, always or some of the time more often than men (23%).

These findings are consistent with existing research showing experiences of loneliness to be more common among younger adults. Our Loneliness – What characteristics and circumstances are associated with feeling lonely? article examines this in greater detail.

Time series data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) from March 2020 onwards of loneliness and other measures of personal well-being are available in our Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: personal well-being and loneliness dataset.

The analysis in this bulletin is based on adults aged 16 years and over in Great Britain.

In the latest period, 8 January to 2 February 2025, we sampled 8,943 households. This sample was randomly selected from people who had previously completed the Labour Market Survey (LMS) or Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN). The responding sample for the latest period contained 3,556 individuals, representing a 40% response rate.

Survey weights were applied to make estimates representative of the population, based on our population estimates. Estimates for some groups of the population may be subject to greater uncertainty because of smaller sample sizes for these groups (for example, younger adults).

For all estimates in the datasets, confidence intervals are provided. Where comparisons between estimates are made, associated confidence intervals should be used to assess the statistical significance of the differences. In some cases, additional statistical hypothesis testing was performed to identify differences between groups.

Further information on the survey design and quality can be found in our Opinions and Lifestyle Survey Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).