Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: 18 to 29 October 2023

The following information is for the latest survey period 18 to 29 October 2023, based on adults in Great Britain.

• When asked about the important issues facing the UK today, the most commonly reported issues continued to be the cost of living (89%), the NHS (84%), the economy (72%), climate change and the environment (59%) and housing (58%).

• Nearly half (49%) of adults reported international conflict as an important issue facing the UK; this has increased from 38% in the previous period (4 to 15 October 2023).

• Around a half (49%) of adults reported that their cost of living had increased compared with a month ago; this has decreased from four in five adults (80%) during a similar period one year ago (12 to 23 October 2022).

• Among those currently paying rent or a mortgage, 4 in 10 (40%) reported that their rent or mortgage payments had gone up in the past six months; this was 32% during a similar period one year ago (12 to 23 October 2022).

• Among those who are currently paying rent or a mortgage, 35% reported finding it very or somewhat difficult affording these payments; this was 33% during a similar period one year ago (12 to 23 October 2022).

• Of those who pay energy bills, just below 4 in 10 (39%) adults reported it being very or somewhat difficult to afford energy bills; this was 42% during a similar period one year ago (12 to 23 October 2022).

This fortnight, we also asked adults about their awareness of government schemes that may help support them with their energy bills.

• Around a third (36%) of adults in Great Britain had not heard of any of the government schemes they were asked about, for example the Energy Price Guarantee or the Warm Home Discount.

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 (18 to 29 October 2023), we sampled 4,984 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 2,411 individuals, representing a 48.4% 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).