The economy of the United Kingdom is expected to fall by ** percent in the second quarter of 2020, following the Coronavirus outbreak and closure of several businesses. According to the forecast the economy will bounce back in the third quarter of 2020, based on a scenario where the lockdown lasts for three months, with social distancing gradually phased out over a subsequent three-month period.

The indicators and analysis presented in this bulletin are based on responses from the new voluntary fortnightly business survey, which captures businesses responses on how their turnover, workforce prices, trade and business resilience have been affected in the two week reference period. These data relate to the period 6 April 2020 to 19 April 2020.

This page is no longer updated. It has been superseded by the Business insights and impacts on the UK economy dataset page (see link in Notices). It contains comprehensive weighted datasets for Wave 7 onwards. All future BICS datasets will be available there. The datasets on this page include mainly unweighted responses from the voluntary fortnightly business survey, which captures businesses’ responses on how their turnover, workforce prices, trade and business resilience have been affected in the two-week reference period, up to Wave 17.

As of November 2021 the overall cost of the United Kingdom's job retention scheme was 70 billion British pounds. The number of jobs furloughed on the scheme has been steadily declining since May 2020, with around 2.4 million jobs still in furlough by the end of October 2020.

Experimental results of the pilot Office for National Statistics (ONS) online time-use study (collected 28 March to 26 April 2020 across Great Britain) compared with the 2014 to 2015 UK time-use study.

In 2024, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United Kingdom grew by 0.9 percent and is expected to grow by just one percent in 2025 and by 1.9 percent in 2026. Growth is expected to slow down to 1.8 percent in 2027, and then grow by 1.7, and 1.8 percent in 2027 and 2028 respectively. The sudden emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 and subsequent closure of large parts of the economy were the cause of the huge 9.4 percent contraction in 2020, with the economy recovering somewhat in 2021, when the economy grew by 7.6 percent. UK growth downgraded in 2025 Although the economy is still expected to grow in 2025, the one percent growth anticipated in this forecast has been halved from two percent in October 2024. Increased geopolitical uncertainty as well as the impact of American tariffs on the global economy are some of the main reasons for this mark down. The UK's inflation rate for 2025 has also been revised, with an annual rate of 3.2 percent predicated, up from 2.6 percent in the last forecast. Unemployment is also anticipated to be higher than initially thought, with the annual unemployment rate likely to be 4.5 percent instead of 4.1 percent. Long-term growth problems In the last two quarters of 2023, the UK economy shrank by 0.1 percent in Q3 and by 0.3 percent in Q4, plunging the UK into recession for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before that last recession, however, the UK economy has been struggling with weak growth. Although growth since the pandemic has been noticeably sluggish, there has been a clear long-term trend of declining growth rates. The economy has consistently been seen as one of the most important issues to people in Britain, ahead of health, immigration and the environment. Achieving strong levels of economic growth is one of the main aims of the Labour government elected in 2024, although after almost one year in power it has so far proven elusive.

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the cruise industry in the United Kingdom had to suspend its operations in March 2020. It was expected that the economic loss in direct expenditures would amount to 539 million British pounds within 60 days of the suspension, and 888 million British pounds after 90 days.

This briefing presents evidence on the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on London and Londoners​ Topics included in the briefing focus on recent data releases published in the preceding months that tell us how social policy issues are evolving in London since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic For more on the health and demographic impacts see the Demographic Impact Briefing and for labour market impacts see Labour Market Analysis. A page linking to all Covid-19 related data and analyses can be found here.

The economic landscape of the United Kingdom has been significantly shaped by the intertwined issues of Brexit, COVID-19, and their interconnected impacts. Despite the country’s robust and diverse economy, the disruptions caused by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic have created uncertainty and upheaval for both businesses and individuals. Recognizing the magnitude of these challenges, academic literature has directed its attention toward conducting immediate research in this crucial area. This study sets out to investigate key economic factors that have influenced various sectors of the UK economy and have broader economic implications within the context of Brexit and COVID-19. The factors under scrutiny include the unemployment rate, GDP index, earnings, and trade. To accomplish this, a range of data analysis tools and techniques were employed, including the Box-Jenkins method, neural network modeling, Google Trend analysis, and Twitter-sentiment analysis. The analysis encompassed different periods: pre-Brexit (2011-2016), Brexit (2016-2020), the COVID-19 period, and post-Brexit (2020-2021). The findings of the analysis offer intriguing insights spanning the past decade. For instance, the unemployment rate displayed a downward trend until 2020 but experienced a spike in 2021, persisting for a six-month period. Meanwhile, total earnings per week exhibited a gradual increase over time, and the GDP index demonstrated an upward trajectory until 2020 but declined during the COVID-19 period. Notably, trade experienced the most significant decline following both Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the impact of these events exhibited variations across the UK’s four regions and twelve industries. Wales and Northern Ireland emerged as the regions most affected by Brexit and COVID-19, with industries such as accommodation, construction, and wholesale trade particularly impacted in terms of earnings and employment levels. Conversely, industries such as finance, science, and health demonstrated an increased contribution to the UK’s total GDP in the post-Brexit period, indicating some positive outcomes. It is worth highlighting that the impact of these economic factors was more pronounced on men than on women. Among all the variables analyzed, trade suffered the most severe consequences in the UK. By early 2021, the macroeconomic situation in the country was characterized by a simple dynamic: economic demand rebounded at a faster pace than supply, leading to shortages, bottlenecks, and inflation. The findings of this research carry significant value for the UK government and businesses, empowering them to adapt and innovate based on forecasts to navigate the challenges posed by Brexit and COVID-19. By doing so, they can promote long-term economic growth and effectively address the disruptions caused by these interrelated issues.

Weekly estimates of personal well-being including anxiety and life satisfaction, and financial and work impacts from coronavirus (COVID-19) for the population and select sub-groups in Great Britain.

United Kingdom recorded 24603076 Coronavirus Cases since the epidemic began, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, United Kingdom reported 225324 Coronavirus Deaths. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United Kingdom Coronavirus Cases.

This paper summarises the latest evidence and analysis on the impacts of COVID-19 on London’s economy so far and on the economic outlook so that key actors and stakeholders engaged in responding to the pandemic can have a readily available evidence base to inform policy responses.

United Kingdom % of Adults: Worried About The Effect of CO-19 on Their Current Life data was reported at 14.000 % in 05 Feb 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 19.000 % for 08 Jan 2023. United Kingdom % of Adults: Worried About The Effect of CO-19 on Their Current Life data is updated weekly, averaging 59.500 % from Mar 2020 (Median) to 05 Feb 2023, with 104 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 86.000 % in 29 Mar 2020 and a record low of 14.000 % in 05 Feb 2023. United Kingdom % of Adults: Worried About The Effect of CO-19 on Their Current Life data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.H091: Opinions and Lifestyle Survey: Social Impacts of COVID-19 on Great Britain (Discontinued). The series shows the percentage of adults who are very or somewhat worried about the effect of COVID-19 on their life right now. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

United Kingdom % of Adults: Whose Wellbeing is Being Affected by COVID-19 data was reported at 28.000 % in 27 Mar 2022. This records a decrease from the previous number of 29.000 % for 13 Mar 2022. United Kingdom % of Adults: Whose Wellbeing is Being Affected by COVID-19 data is updated weekly, averaging 43.000 % from Apr 2020 (Median) to 27 Mar 2022, with 85 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 57.000 % in 21 Feb 2021 and a record low of 28.000 % in 27 Mar 2022. United Kingdom % of Adults: Whose Wellbeing is Being Affected by COVID-19 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.H091: Opinions and Lifestyle Survey: Social Impacts of COVID-19 on Great Britain (Discontinued).

The UK economy shrank by 0.1 percent in September 2025 after reporting zero growth in the previous month. Since a huge decline in GDP in April 2020, the UK economy has gradually recovered and is now slightly larger than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. After the initial recovery from the pandemic, however, the UK economy has effectively flatlined, fluctuating between low growth and small contractions since 2022. Labour banking on growth to turn around fortunes in 2025 In February 2025, just over half a year after winning the last general election, the approval rating for the new Labour government fell to a low of -48 percent. Furthermore, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer was not only less popular than the new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, but also the leader of the Reform Party, Nigel Farage, whose party have surged in opinion polls recently. This remarkable decline in popularity for the new government is, in some part, due to a deliberate policy of making tough decisions early. Arguably, the most damaging of these policies was the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance for some pensioners, although other factors such as a controversy about gifts and donations also hurt the government. While Labour aims to restore the UK's economic and political credibility in the long term, they will certainly hope for some good economic news sooner rather than later. Economy bounces back in 2024 after ending 2023 in recession Due to two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, in late 2023 the UK economy ended the year in recession. After not growing at all in the second quarter of 2023, UK GDP fell by 0.1 percent in the third quarter, and then by 0.3 percent in the last quarter. For the whole of 2023, the economy grew by 0.4 percent compared to 2022, and for 2024 is forecast to have grown by 1.1 percent. During the first two quarters of 2024, UK GDP grew by 0.7 percent, and 0.4 percent, with this relatively strong growth followed by zero percent growth in the third quarter of the year. Although the economy had started to grow again by the time of the 2024 general election, this was not enough to save the Conservative government at the time. Despite usually seen as the best party for handling the economy, the Conservative's economic competency was behind that of Labour on the eve of the 2024 election.

The United Kingdom's economy grew by 1.1 percent in 2024, after a growth rate of 0.3 percent in 2023, 5.1 percent in 2022, 8.5 percent in 2021, and a record ten percent fall in 2020. During the provided time period, the biggest annual fall in gross domestic product before 2020 occurred in 2009, when the UK economy contracted by 4.6 percent at the height of the global financial crisis of the late 2000s. Before 2021, the year with the highest annual GDP growth rate was 1973, when the UK economy grew by 6.5 percent. UK economy growing but GDP per capita falling In 2022, the UK's GDP per capita amounted to approximately 37,371 pounds, with this falling to 37,028 pounds in 2023, and 36,977 pounds in 2024. While the UK economy as a whole grew during this time, the UK's population grew at a faster rate, resulting in the negative growth in GDP per capita. This suggests the UK economy's struggles with productivity are not only stagnating, but getting worse. The relatively poor economic performance of the UK in recent years has not gone unnoticed by the electorate, with the economy consistently seen as the most important issue for voters since 2022. Recent shocks to UK economy In the second quarter of 2020, the UK economy shrank by a record 20.3 percent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there was a relatively swift economic recovery initially, the economy has struggled to grow much beyond its pre-pandemic size, and was only around 3.1 percent larger in December 2024, when compared with December 2019. Although the labor market has generally been quite resilient during this time, a long twenty-month period between 2021 and 2023 saw prices rise faster than wages, and inflation surge to a high of 11.1 percent in October 2022.

The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom in 2024 was around 2.78 trillion British pounds, an increase when compared to the previous year, when UK GDP amounted to about 2.75 trillion pounds. The significant drop in GDP visible in 2020 was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the smaller declines in 2008 and 2009 because of the global financial crisis of the late 2000s. Low growth problem in the UK Despite growing by 0.9 percent in 2024, and 0.4 percent in 2023 the UK economy is not that much larger than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since recovering from a huge fall in GDP in the second quarter of 2020, the UK economy has alternated between periods of contraction and low growth, with the UK even in a recession at the end of 2023. While economic growth picked up somewhat in 2024, GDP per capita is lower than it was in 2022, following two years of negative growth. UK's global share of GDP falling As of 2024, the UK had the sixth-largest economy in the world, behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India. Among European nations, this meant that the UK currently has the second-largest economy in Europe, although the economy of France, Europe's third-largest economy, is of a similar size. The UK's global economic ranking will likely fall in the coming years, however, with the UK's share of global GDP expected to fall from 2.16 percent in 2025 to 2.02 percent by 2029.  

This is a summary report on the economic impact of COVID-19 on London’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It presents a uniquely granular and timely analysis of the impacts on London’s SMEs by sectoral, financial, employment, and risk indicators and includes deep dive case studies on the economic impact on the Night Time Economy, high streets and town centres, and the Culture and Creative industries. The analysis was undertaken on a pro bono basis by Bloomberg Associates, for and in close collaboration with the GLA providing guidance and direction. Partners supporting Bloomberg Associates included Slalom, Burning Glass Technologies, DueDil and CK Delta. It leverages a combination of public and private data from a range of financial, economic, behavioural, sociographic and demographic sources and complements the macro-economic scenarios for the London economy. The study was conducted between March 2020 and June 2020 and leverages the most updated data that was available at the time. It is important to note that new data and evidence constantly emerges and could be integrated in a potential future iteration of this work. The report has sought to: Illustrate the impact of the pandemic on London’s SMEs and local employment and improve understanding of the scale and scope of the economic challenges that London faces in recovery. Demonstrate the application of “bottom-up” and localised data to create a more complete, granular picture of overall economic impact Show the intersection of impact by sectors and geographies, exploring the relationship between these two factors to demonstrate the risk hot spots across Greater London. If you have any comments or questions related to the report, please email GLA Economics

Virgin Islands (British) WHO: COVID-2019: Number of Patients: Death: New: British Virgin Islands data was reported at 0.000 Person in 24 Dec 2023. This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.000 Person for 23 Dec 2023. Virgin Islands (British) WHO: COVID-2019: Number of Patients: Death: New: British Virgin Islands data is updated daily, averaging 0.000 Person from Mar 2020 (Median) to 24 Dec 2023, with 1369 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 7.000 Person in 09 Feb 2022 and a record low of 0.000 Person in 24 Dec 2023. Virgin Islands (British) WHO: COVID-2019: Number of Patients: Death: New: British Virgin Islands data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Health Organization. The data is categorized under High Frequency Database’s Disease Outbreaks – Table WHO.D002: World Health Organization: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-2019): by Country and Region (Discontinued).