Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: 14 to 25 June 2023

The following information is for the latest survey period, 14 to 25 June 2023, based on adults in Great Britain.

• When asked about the important issues facing the UK today, the most commonly reported issues remain the cost of living (91%), the NHS (82%), the economy (77%), and climate change and the environment (60%).

• Around 6 in 10 (62%) adults reported that their cost of living had increased, compared with a month ago; this proportion appears to have gradually decreased since early April 2023, when it was at 76%.

• Commonly reported reasons why adults said their cost of living had increased compared with a month ago were an increase in the price of food shopping (96%), an increase in gas or electricity bills (62%), an increase in the price of fuel (34%), or an increase in their rent or mortgage costs (26%).

• Around half (47%) of adults reported that their rent or mortgage payments have gone up in the last 6 months, which has increased since June 2022 when it was 30%.

• When asked how easy or difficult it was to afford rent or mortgage payments, 43% reported it was very or somewhat difficult, an increase from 25% in June 2022, and in the latest period, 2% reported that they are behind on rent or mortgage payments.

• Around half (47%) of adults reported they found it very or somewhat difficult to afford their energy bills, an increase from 37% in June 2022, and in the latest period, 6% reported that they were behind on their gas or electricity bills.  

Our upcoming release, Impact of increased cost of living on adults across Great Britain: February to May 2023, published on 14 July 2023, will consider how different groups of the population are affected by the rising cost of living as we continue to monitor its impact on people in Great Britain.

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 have made changes that reduce the scope of the release and accompanying datasets. This is 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 will continue to be provided on a regular basis in other ONS releases. For example, OPN estimates relating to the impact of 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 (14 to 25 June 2023), we sampled 4,992 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 2,150 individuals, representing a 43% response rate.

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