Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain: 26 June 2020

• Over 9 in 10 adults (94%) in Great Britain have left their home this week – a slightly higher proportion than last week (92%).

• Over one-quarter (26%) of people who had left their home this week did so to meet with people in a personal place, such as visiting family and friends at home; this has increased from 13% last week.

• Almost 8 in 10 (77%) working adults said they had either worked at home or travelled to work this week, a similar level to last week (79%).

• The proportion of working adults who reported they had travelled to work in the past seven days increased to 44% this week from 41% last week.

• Of those adults who had travelled on public transport in the past seven days, 86% had worn a face covering when doing so – an increase from 62% last week.

• Almost half of adults (43%) reported that there were some aspects of their lifestyle that had changed for the better since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

• Of those who reported that some aspects of their lifestyle had changed for the better, over half (56%) said that they were now able to spend more quality time with people they lived with, while 50% were enjoying a slower pace of life and 47% preferred that they were spending less time travelling

This weekly bulletin contains data and indicators from a new module being undertaken through the Office for National Statistics' (ONS's) Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) to understand the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on British society.

The statistics in this publication are based on a survey of 2,500 adults aged 16 years and over conducted between 18 and 21 June 2020 (inclusive). Results this week are based on 1,920 responding adults (77% response rate).

It contains breakdowns of results by sex and for identified "at-risk" groups that have been advised to take additional precautions. This includes those aged 70 years and over and those with certain underlying health conditions. The full list of conditions is included in the Glossary.

This bulletin presents a summary of results, with further data including confidence intervals for the estimates contained in the associated datasets. Where changes in results from previous weeks, or differences between groups are presented in this bulletin, associated confidence intervals should be used to assess the statistical significance of the change. Not all differences commented on in this bulletin are statistically significant.

Throughout this bulletin, "this week" refers to responses collected during the period 18 to 21 June 2020 and "last week" refers to those collected during the period 11 to 14 June 2020.

Of adults in Great Britain, over 9 in 10 (94%) said they had left their home for any reason in the past seven days, a slightly higher level than last week (92%). Lower proportions of those aged 70 years and over left their home at 85%, although this has also increased from 81% last week.

The largest increase in reasons for leaving the home this week is meeting up with people in a personal place - that is, visiting family and friends at home, up to 26% compared with 13% last week.

The most popular reason to leave home this week continues to be shopping for basic necessities, with 82% of those who have left their home reporting doing so. Over 1 in 10 (12%) adults also said they had shopped for non-essential items such as clothes, furniture, and so on.

It should be noted responses to the survey were collected after non-essential shops were allowed to re-open in England on 15 June, but before shops in Wales and Scotland were permitted to re-open on the 22 and 29 June respectively.

Almost half of adults (47%) in Great Britain said they had visited a park or public green space this week, a small increase from 45% last week. Of these, 55% said they had met up with friends or family from outside of their household.

This varied by age, with 38% of those aged over 70 years visiting a park or public green space compared with 48% for those aged 16 to 69 years.

Face coverings

In the past seven days, over 4 in 10 adults (44%) have worn a face covering outside of their homes to slow the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), an increase compared with last week (40%).

Adults with a health condition were most likely to report wearing a face covering when outside of their home this week (56%), followed by women (48%) and those aged 70 years and over (45%). For men, 41% reported wearing a face covering this week, an increase from 23% two weeks ago.

For those that had worn a face covering, the most common situation was while shopping (65%), followed by running errands (23%).

Regardless of whether they had worn a face covering in the past, over half of adults (55%) said they were either very or fairly likely to wear one in the next seven days. This has increased from 51% of adults last week, and 40% the week before.

It became mandatory to wear face coverings on public transport in England on 15 June. Of those adults who had used public transport across Great Britain in the past seven days, 86% had worn a face covering while doing so - an increase from 62% last week.

Over 6 in 10 of working adults (61%) said the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was having an impact on their work. The most common impacts reported were:

• decrease in hours worked

• being furloughed

• finding working from home difficult

Almost 8 in 10 (77%) working adults said they had either worked at home or travelled to work this week, a similar level to last week (79%). The proportion of working adults who reported they had travelled to work in the past seven days increased to 44% this week from 41% last week.

One-third of adults (33%) who had worked in the last seven days said they had done so exclusively at home - a decrease from 38% last week. This is in line with the latest data from the Business Impact of Coronavirus Survey (BICS), which showed 2% of the UK workforce in businesses continuing to trade had returned from remote working in the past two weeks; 7% of the total workforce had also returned from furlough.

Official estimates of labour market participation can be found in the Labour market overview.

Of those who had worked from home this week, over two-thirds (69%) reported that this was because their employer had asked them to do so, 48% said that they were following government advice to work from home, and 38% reported that they were working from home because of their workplace being closed.

This week, of the adults who had reported the coronavirus pandemic was having an impact on their work, less than 1 in 10 (8%) said they were concerned about their health and safety at work, which has fallen from 15% last week.

Of those people who travelled to work in the past seven days, over 4 in 10 (43%) did work that required direct physical contact with other people. Over half (52%) of workers in this group reported either often or always wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) while at work, but more than 1 in 5 (21%) reported never wearing PPE.

Of those whose work did not require having direct physical contact with other people, 30% reported they had always stayed at least two metres away from others in the workplace, and an additional 48% said they had managed to do this "often" - an overall decrease when compared with last week (46% and 36% respectively). Of those whose work did not require direct physical contact with others, almost 4 in 10 (39%) had, however, reported they had either often or always worn PPE at work in the past seven days.

More detailed information on changes to labour market participation can be found in Coronavirus and the latest indicators for the UK economy and society: 25 June 2020.

At the time of the survey, some children in England were able to return to school.

Almost one-third (32%) of adults with children of school age reported that they had been asked to send their children back to school, with nearly 8 in 10 (78%) of these saying that their children were now attending school some or all of the time. This is an increase on last week when 21% of adults with children of school age reported that they had been asked to send their children back to school, and 67% of these reported that their children were now attending some or all of the time.

Of those who have been asked to send their children back to school or college but have taken the decision not to, over 6 in 10 (63%) said this was because they were worried about them catching COVID-19 there.

For children still being homeschooled, this week they spent on average 12 hours learning.

Of those who have homeschooled their children this week, 6 in 10 adults (60%) said their children were struggling to continue their education at home - a similar level to last week (59%). Lack of motivation, limited parent or carer time to support and lack of guidance and support were the most common reasons for children to be struggling. A detailed analysis of the social impacts the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had on younger people, was published Monday 22 June.

Almost two-thirds of adults (64%) said they were very or somewhat worried about the effect that the coronavirus (COVID-19) was having on their life now, which has not changed when compared with last week.

Almost half of adults (47%) said their well-being was affected by the coronavirus pandemic in the past seven days, a similar proportion to last week (48%).

This week we asked people if there were aspects of their lifestyle that had changed for the better since the coronavirus pandemic, and almost half of adults (43%) reported that they had experienced some positive lifestyle changes. Adults aged 16 to 69 years were more likely to report they had experienced some positive lifestyle changes, with 47% of people reporting feeling this way compared with 24% of those aged 70 years and over.

Of those who said they had experienced some positive lifestyle changes, over half (56%) reported that they were now able to spend more quality time with people they lived with, 50% are enjoying a slower pace of life, and 47% prefer that they are spending less time travelling.

For those aged 70 years and over, the most common positive lifestyle changes reported were being more in touch with neighbours and having a slower pace of life (52%), followed by keeping in touch more with family and friends (47%).

The positive lifestyle change people were most likely to report they would keep after the pandemic was the increase in exercise they were doing. Of people who reported exercising more since the pandemic, 96% wanted to continue this positive lifestyle change.

Almost 9 in 10 (86%) of adults who had reported they were enjoying spending more quality time with the people they lived with, wanted to continue this after the pandemic was over.

Over one-quarter (28%) of adults said they are planning to make big changes in their life after we have recovered from the coronavirus pandemic. Over 4 in 10 (42%) of these people want to make a change to their work, 38% want to change their relationships and 35% want to change where they live.

Underlying health condition

In this bulletin, adults with an underlying health condition include those with:

• Alzheimer's disease or dementia
• angina or long-term heart problem
• asthma
• a learning disability such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Asperger's (Asperger syndrome)
• conditions affecting the brain and nerves, such as Parkinson's disease
• cancer
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or long-term lung problem
• diabetes
• kidney or liver disease
• a weakened immune system such as the result of conditions as HIV and AIDS, or medicines such as steroid tablets or treatment for cancer
• problems with your spleen - for example, sickle cell disease, or if you have had your spleen removed
• being overweight (having a BMI of 40 or above)
• given an organ transplant
• stroke or cerebral haemorrhage or cerebral thrombosis
• rheumatoid arthritis

In employment

For this survey, a person is said to be a "working adult" if:

• they had a paid job, either as an employee or self-employed
• they did any casual work for payment
• they did any unpaid or voluntary work in the previous week

The Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) is a monthly omnibus survey. In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we have adapted the OPN to become a weekly survey used to collect data on the impact of the coronavirus on day-to-day life in Great Britain. In this wave, 2,500 individuals were sampled, with a response rate of 77% (or 1,920 individuals) for the survey conducted from 18 June to 21 June 2020.

The survey results are weighted to be a nationally representative sample for Great Britain, and data are collected using an online self-completion questionnaire. Individuals who did not want to or were unable to complete the survey online had the opportunity to take part over the phone.

Where changes in results from previous weeks or differences between groups are presented in this bulletin, associated confidence intervals, which are included in the associated datasets, indicate their significance.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) QMI.

Sampling

A sample of 2,500 households were randomly selected from the European Health Interview Survey. From each household, one adult was selected at random but with unequal probability. Younger people were given higher selection probability than older people because of under-representation in the sample available for the survey. Further information on the sample design can be found in the OPN QMI.

Weighting

The responding sample contained 1,920 individuals (77% response rate). Survey weights were applied to make estimates representative of the population.

Weights were first adjusted for non-response and attrition. Subsequently, the weights were calibrated to satisfy population distributions considering the following factors: sex by age, region, tenure, and highest qualification, employment status, National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) group and smoking status. For age, sex and region, population totals based on projections of mid-year population estimates for June 2020 were used. The resulting weighted sample is therefore representative of the Great Britain adult population by a number of socio-demographic factors and geography.

The main strengths of the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) include:

• it allows for timely production of data and statistics that can respond quickly to changing needs
• it meets data needs: the questionnaire is developed with customer consultation, and design expertise is applied in the development stages
• robust methods are adopted for the survey's sampling and weighting strategies to limit the impact of bias
• quality assurance procedures are undertaken throughout the analysis stages to minimise the risk of error\ The main limitations of the OPN include:

• the sample size is relatively small: 2,500 individuals per week with fewer completed interviews, meaning that detailed analyses for subnational geographies and other sub-groups are not possible

• comparisons between periods and groups must be done with caution as estimates are provided from a sample survey; as such, confidence intervals are included in the datasets to present the sampling variability, which should be taken into account when assessing differences between periods, as true differences may not exist