Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: 11 to 22 May 2022

In the latest period, 11 to 22 May 2022, based on adults in Great Britain:

• around 9 in 10 (88%) adults reported their cost of living had risen over the past month (the same as in the previous period, 27 April to 8 May 2022); when we first started asking this question in the period 3 to 14 November 2021, this proportion was 62%

• the most common reasons given by adults who reported their cost of living had increased in the latest period continued to be an increase in the price of food shopping (93%), an increase in gas or electricity bills (85%), and an increase in the price of fuel (78%)

• over 4 in 10 (44%) adults reported that they were buying less food when food shopping in the past two weeks; this proportion appears to be increasing (41% in the previous period and 18% at the beginning of 2022)

• around a quarter of adults (26%) said they were considering making changes in their home to improve energy efficiency; this was a larger proportion compared with when we last asked in autumn 2021 (19%)

• the most common improvements being considered among adults considering making changes to improve energy efficiency were: improving insulation (42%), switching energy supplier (24%), installing solar panels (21%) or making other improvements (32%)

• the most common reasons reported among the around three-quarters (74%) of adults not considering making changes to improve energy efficiency were: they would cost too much (36%), that they do not own their home (29%) or they felt their home was efficient enough (26%)

• three-quarters (75%) of working adults travelled to work at some point in the past seven days, a slight increase compared with 70% in the previous period

Estimates in this release are based on data collected between 11 and 22 May (the "latest period") and 27 April and 8 May 2022 (the "previous period").

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

We continued to ask adults about changes in their cost of living over the last month, with around 9 in 10 (88%) reporting it had increased in the latest period (the same as in the previous period). The proportion of adults reporting this has increased since November 2021, when 62% of adults reported this (3 to 14 November 2021).

The proportion of adults who think they would not be able to save any money in the next 12 months (46% in the latest period, 34% in November 2021) or that they could not afford to pay an unexpected, but necessary, expense of £850 (33% in the latest period, 27% in November 2021) has increased more gradually over the same time period (Figure 1).

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

• an increase in the price of food shopping (93%, compared with 92% in the previous period)
• an increase in gas or electricity bills (85%, the same as in the previous period)
• an increase in the price of fuel (78%, compared with 79% in the previous period)

Of these reasons, almost 6 in 10 (57%) reported being most worried about an increase in gas and electricity bills (58% in the previous period).

Actions following cost of living increases

The most common actions reported by adults who reported their cost of living had increased continued to be:

• spending less on non-essentials (56%, the same as in the previous period)
• using less fuel such as gas or electricity at home (50%, compared with 51% in the previous period)
• cutting back on non-essential journeys in a vehicle (39%, compared with 40% in the previous period)
• spending less on food shopping and essentials (36%, compared with 35% in the previous period)

When asked about their shopping habits in the past two weeks, over 4 in 10 (44%) adults reported that they were buying less food when food shopping. This proportion appears to be increasing, having been 41% in the previous period and 18% at the beginning of 2022.

Similarly, almost half (46%) of adults reported they had to spend more than usual to get what they normally buy in the latest period (38% in the previous period and 19% at the beginning of 2022).

Energy bills

The proportion of those who pay energy bills who are finding it very or somewhat difficult to afford them appears to be increasing. Over 4 in 10 (46%) of these adults reported they found it very or somewhat difficult to afford them in the latest period (41% in the previous period, 37% in the period 30 March to 10 April 2022).

In comparison, around 4 in 10 (42%) adults who pay energy bills reported it was very or somewhat easy to afford their energy bills in the latest period (49% in the previous period, 52% in the period 30 March to 10 April 2022).

Among those who reported they have gas or electricity supplied to their home, 4% reported they were behind on these bills (the same as in the previous period). This proportion has appeared to be relatively stable since we first start asking this question in March 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 April 2022.

For estimates on people's experiences regarding cost of living including breakdowns by age, sex and trends over time, please see our household finances dataset. For more estimates on people's experiences when shopping specifically, please see our personal experiences of shortages of goods dataset.

This week, we asked respondents about their attitudes towards improving the energy efficiency of their homes. The same questions were asked in autumn 2021 (the period 22 September to 3 October 2021) just before the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, and were published as part of our dataset Opinions and Lifestyle Survey data on domestic energy efficiency in Great Britain.

In the latest period, around a quarter of adults (26%) said they were considering making changes in their home to improve energy efficiency. This was a larger proportion compared with when we asked in autumn 2021 (19%).

The most common improvements being considered among these adults in the latest period were:

• improving insulation (42%)

• making other energy efficiency improvements (32%)

• switching energy supplier (24%)

• installing solar panels (21%) (Figure 2)

The most common reasons reported among the almost three-quarters of adults (74%) who were not considering making energy efficiency improvements in the latest period were:

• making improvements would cost too much (36%)

• they do not own their home (29%)

• they felt their home was already efficient enough (26%) (Figure 3)

For estimates regarding adults in Great Britain's attitudes towards making energy efficiency improvements in their home, including breakdowns by age and sex, please see Table 5 of our household finances dataset.

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

• around 1 in 10 (9%) adults reported being unable to buy fuel in the previous two weeks a decrease from 11% in the previous period but still higher than at the start of 2022 (3% in the period 6 to 16 January 2022)
• around 1 in 20 (6%) adults reported being unable to buy medicine (5% in the previous period, 5% at the beginning of 2022)
• around one in six (16%) reported being unable to buy essential food (14% previous period, 16% at the beginning of 2022)
• one in four (25%) reported being unable to buy other non-essential food (23% in the previous period, 20% at the beginning of 2022)

For estimates on people's experiences regarding shortages of goods, including breakdowns by age, sex and trends over time, please see our Personal experiences of shortages of goods dataset.

Personal well-being

Average levels of personal well-being were:

• life satisfaction - 6.9 in the latest period and 7.0 in the previous period
• feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile - 7.2 in the latest period and 7.3 in the previous period
• happiness - 6.9 in the latest period and 7.1 in the previous period
• anxiety - 4.0 in the latest period and the previous period

These estimates of personal well-being may differ from those in our Personal well-being in the UK, quarterly: April 2011 to September 2021 bulletin, 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 4: Levels of personal well-being remained relatively stable

Adults in Great Britain, March 2020 to May 2022

Notes:

1. Questions included "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".
3. Base: all adults.

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Loneliness

Around 1 in 12 (8%) adults reported feeling lonely always or often in the latest period (6% in the previous period).

This increased to around a quarter of adults (25%) reporting feeling lonely always, often or some of the time in the latest period (the same as in the previous period).

For further estimates on people's personal well-being and loneliness, including breakdowns by age, sex and trends over time, please see our personal well-being and loneliness dataset.

Two in five (40%) adults reported they were very or somewhat worried about the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on their lives right now. This is a slight decrease from 43% in the previous period.

Further estimates regarding the social impacts of COVID-19, including use of face masks, handwashing, social distancing, self-isolation and lateral flow tests, including breakdowns by age and sex, can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) and other illnesses dataset.

Three-quarters (75%) of working adults travelled to work at some point in the past seven days (70% in the previous period).

This comprised 53% of working adults who only travelled to work (46% in the previous period) and 22% of adults who both worked from home and travelled to work (24% in the previous period).

15% of working adults said they worked from home exclusively in the past seven days (14% in the previous period).

11% neither travelled to work or worked from home (16% in the previous period). Reasons for working adults neither working from home nor travelling to work in the past seven days might include being on annual or sick leave.

Further estimates regarding the location of work, including breakdowns by age and sex and trends over time, can be found in Tables 3, 10 and 11 of our Coronavirus (COVID-19) and other illnesses dataset.

Our Is hybrid working here to stay article provides information on people's future plans regarding their location of work, including examination of the characteristics of those most likely to hybrid work (both work from home and travel to work) .

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 opinions 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 our 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 (11 to 22 May 2022), we sampled 4,981 households. This sample was randomly selected from those that had previously completed the Labour Market Survey (LMS) or OPN. The responding sample for the latest period contained 2,245 individuals, representing a 45.1% response rate.

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).