In May 2020, a survey carried out in the UK found that the 80 percent of British respondents overall reported that most people they knew had been obeying the lockdown rules. The respondents were more skeptical of the wider public as only 67 percent that most people in the UK were obeying the lockdown rules.

The latest number of cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Understanding Society, (UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and the survey research organisations Verian Group (formerly Kantar Public) and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.

Understanding Society (UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and the survey research organisations Kantar Public and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.

The Understanding Society COVID-19 Study, 2020-2021 is a regular survey of households in the UK. The aim of the study is to enable research on the socio-economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the short and long term. The surveys started in April 2020 and took place monthly until July 2020. From September 2020 they took place every other month until March 2021 and the final wave was fielded in September 2021. They complement the annual interviews of the Understanding Society study. The data can be linked to data on the same individuals from previous waves of the annual interviews (SN 6614) using the personal identifier pidp. However, the most recent pre-pandemic (2019) annual interviews for all respondents who have taken part in the COVID-19 Study are included as part of this data release. Please refer to the User Guide for further information on linking in this way and for geographical information options.

Latest edition information

For the eleventh edition (December 2021), revised April, May, June, July, September, November 2020, January 2021 and March 2021 data files for the adult survey have been deposited. These files have been amended to address issues identified during ongoing quality assurance activities. All documentation has been updated to explain the revisions, and users are advised to consult the documentation for details. In addition new data from the September 2021 web survey have been deposited.

Business leaders within the eating and drinking out sector in the United Kingdom expected their biggest challenges for business recovery post-lockdown due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to be operational changes and Government regulations. Challenges related to staff and supply were not considered as major.

Pregnancy and health characteristics of respondents from online survey for pregnant women with GDM during COVID-19 pandemic according to meeting the physical activity guidelines/not meeting physical activity guidelines.

In May 2020, a survey carried out in the UK found that 79 percent of British respondents overall reported they were following the lockdown rules as strictly as when they came into force. Although, a quarter of respondents in the age group 18 to 34 years reported to becoming more relaxed and not quite following the restrictions to their full strictness.

The latest number of cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

These data were generated as part of a 12-month ESRC-funded research project examining the impact of the new and changed regulations arising from the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK small business community. Researchers from Newcastle University and the University of Birmingham, in collaboration with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), conducted a survey and follow-up interviews with small businesses across all regions of the UK to understand their experience of understanding and responding to regulations during the pandemic. The transcripts archived here comprise interviews with small business owners (n=23).

Regulations introduced due to the governmental response to COVID-19 force business leaders to take decisions with far-reaching consequences for employees' livelihoods, public and employee health, and the viability and survival of their businesses. Crucially, what underpins such decisions are complex judgements based on their understanding of the regulatory context and their capacity to discriminate between swathes of legal obligation and guidance of different kinds. This presents a particularly significant challenge to small businesses (0-49 employees) due to their constrained resources.

The current pandemic represents the immediate context for this research, which will undertake a large-scale survey with follow-up interviews to understand how small businesses receive, understand and act on the UK's regulatory response to the pandemic and the financial, legal, and emotional costs of complying with this regulatory challenge. The UK regulatory context is further complicated by actions being taken at the level of devolved nations and regionalised variation of regulatory impact at different times.

The research, in partnership with the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses), will provide evidence and insights to inform governmental regulatory responses to future public health crises and to regulation in a post-COVID landscape. It will arm those who formulate regulation and related guidance relevant to small businesses with greater clarity about the means by which businesses receive and interpret guidance, and whether and how they act on it. Regulation informed in this way has the potential to deliver a positive impact on employees' livelihoods, public and employee health, and the survival of UK small businesses.

Experimental statistics from the Student Experiences Insights Survey (SEIS) in England. Includes information on the mental health and well-being, behaviours, plans, and opinions of first year higher education students in the context of guidance on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In May 2020, a survey carried out in the United Kingdom found that there was little faith in the British public to use common sense when meeting relatives during the Coronavirus lockdown. 27 percent of respondents were very confident in the people they know to use common sense with regards to the lockdown guidance, but only seven percent were very confident in the common sense of the wider British public. The latest number of cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

As the UK went into the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team behind the biggest social survey in the UK, Understanding Society (UKHLS), developed a way to capture these experiences. From April 2020, participants from this Study were asked to take part in the Understanding Society COVID-19 survey, henceforth referred to as the COVID-19 survey or the COVID-19 study.

The COVID-19 survey regularly asked people about their situation and experiences. The resulting data gives a unique insight into the impact of the pandemic on individuals, families, and communities. The COVID-19 Teaching Dataset contains data from the main COVID-19 survey in a simplified form. It covers topics such as

• Socio-demographics
• Whether working at home and home-schooling
• COVID symptoms
• Health and well-being
• Social contact and neighbourhood cohesion
• Volunteering

The resource contains two data files:

• Cross-sectional: contains data collected in Wave 4 in July 2020 (with some additional variables from other waves);
• Longitudinal: Contains mainly data from Waves 1, 4 and 9 with key variables measured at three time points.

Key features of the dataset

• Missing values: in the web survey, participants clicking "Next" but not answering a question were given further options such as "Don't know" and "Prefer not to say". Missing observations like these are recorded using negative values such as -1 for "Don't know". In many instances, users of the data will need to set these values as missing. The User Guide includes Stata and SPSS code for setting negative missing values to system missing.

• The Longitudinal file is a balanced panel and is in wide format. A balanced panel means it only includes participants that took part in every wave. In wide format, each participant has one row of information, and each measurement of the same variable is a different variable.

• Weights: both the cross-sectional and longitudinal files include survey weights that adjust the sample to represent the UK adult population. The cross-sectional weight (betaindin_xw) adjusts for unequal selection probabilities in the sample design and for non-response. The longitudinal weight (ci_betaindin_lw) adjusts for the sample design and also for the fact that not all those invited to participate in the survey, do participate in all waves.

• Both the cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets include the survey design variables (psu and strata).

A full list of variables in both files can be found in the User Guide appendix.

Who is in the sample?

All adults (16 years old and over as of April 2020), in households who had participated in at least one of the last two waves of the main study Understanding Society, were invited to participate in this survey. From the September 2020 (Wave 5) survey onwards, only sample members who had completed at least one partial interview in any of the first four web surveys were invited to participate. From the November 2020 (Wave 6) survey onwards, those who had only completed the initial survey in April 2020 and none since, were no longer invited to participate

The User guide accompanying the data adds to the information here and includes a full variable list with details of measurement levels and links to the relevant questionnaire.

• Socio-demographics;
• Whether working at home and home-schooling;
• COVID symptoms;
• Health and well-being;
• Social contact and neighbourhood cohesion;
• Volunteering.

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.

In a survey carried out in May 2020, 18 percent of Brits surveyed think that schools in the UK should re-open once new cases of coronavirus infections starts to go down, while 52 percent believe they should re-open under the same circumstances but close down if infections begin to rise again. There was very little support for any of the places to open as normal again on June 1, regardless of the situation, while 25 percent of respondents thought that pubs should not open again until a vaccine for coronavirus is found.

The latest number of cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Personal circumstances as predictors of meeting the PA guidelines during COVID-19.

Experimental statistics from the Student Experiences Insights Survey (SEIS) in England. Includes information on the behaviours, plans, opinions and well-being of higher education students in their third year or higher in the context of guidance on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The period covered in this dataset is 29 November to 20 December 2021.