Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: 13 to 24 March 2024

The following information is for the latest survey period 13 to 24 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 (88%), the NHS (85%) and the economy (70%).

• Climate change and the environment (57%), crime (57%), housing (56%), immigration (51%) and international conflict (48%) were other commonly reported important issues facing the UK today.

• Just under half of adults (48%) 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 (49%) 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 (93%), their gas and electricity bills (66%) or their fuel (59%) 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 (59%) 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 (66%) has gradually fallen since the start of 2024 (85% in the period 4 to 14 January 2024).

Among all adults:

• Around two-thirds (66%) reported their health was "very good" or "good" in general; this proportion appears to have decreased since we first started asking about this (77% in the period 20 to 30 March 2020).

• Average ratings of personal well-being remained similar to the same time a year ago (8 to 19 March 2023): 6.8 out of 10 for life satisfaction (7.0 a year ago), 7.2 out of 10 feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile (7.3 a year ago), 6.8 out of 10 for happiness (6.9 a year ago) and 4.1 out of 10 for anxiety (the same as a year ago).

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 (13 to 24 March 2024), we sampled 5,008 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 2,357 individuals, representing a 47% response rate.

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).