The economy was seen by 51 percent of people in the UK as one of the top three issues facing the country in March 2025. The ongoing cost of living crisis afflicting the UK, driven by high inflation, is still one of the main concerns of Britons. Health has generally been the second most important issue since early 2022, possibly due to NHS staffing problems, and increasing demand for health services, which have plunged the National Health Service into a deep crisis. From late 2022 onwards, immigration emerged as the third main concern for British people, just ahead of the environment for much of 2023 and as of the most recent month, the second most important issue for voters. Labour's popularity continues to sink in 2025 Despite winning the 2024 general election with a strong majority, the new Labour government has had its share of struggles since coming to power. Shortly after taking office, the approval rating for Labour stood at -2 percent, but this fell throughout the second half of 2024, and by January 2025 had sunk to a new low of -47 percent. Although this was still higher than the previous government's last approval rating of -56 percent, it is nevertheless a severe review from the electorate. Among several decisions from the government, arguably the least popular was the government withdrawing winter fuel payments. This state benefit, previously paid to all pensioners, is now only paid to those on low incomes, with millions of pensioners not receiving this payment in winter 2024. Sunak's pledges fail to prevent defeat in 2024 With an election on the horizon, and the Labour Party consistently ahead in the polls, addressing voter concerns directly was one of the best chances the Conservatives had of staying in power in 2023. At the start of that year, Rishi Sunak attempted to do this by setting out his five pledges for the next twelve months; halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting times, and stop small boats. A year later, Sunak had at best only partial success in these aims. Although the inflation rate fell, economic growth was weak and even declined in the last two quarters of 2023, although it did return to growth in early 2024. National debt was only expected to fall in the mid to late 2020s, while the trend of increasing NHS waiting times did not reverse. Small boat crossings were down from 2022, but still higher than in 2021 or 2020. .

As of January 2025, the economy was seen as the most important issue facing the UK according to young voters (aged between 18 and 24). Compared with the overall population, housing and the environment are seen as more important issues than immigration, which was the joint-second most important issue for the general population.

This statistics shows the most important issues facing Great Britain according to an opinion poll among British adults in Great Britain during June of 2017. Of the respondents, 57 percent reported they believed Britain leaving the EU (Brexit) to be the greatest issue their country was faced. National defense and security issues were a cause for concern to 41 percent of respondents, while 40 percent of respondents believed the current state of the healthcare system to be worrisome. Furthermore, issues concerning immigration and asylum policies were viewed as most important by 36 percent of respondents.

This statistic shows the percentage of respondents in Northern England who found selected current issues to be of importance to Great Britain as of April 2015. When asked to choose three from the list provided, the two issues that were chosen by over 50% of respondents were the economy and health.

Indicators from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) of what people report are the most important issues facing the UK. Uses longer data collection periods to allow estimates from various personal characteristics.

This survey ranks social issues by level of public concern in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2012. Of respondents, 89 percent were concerned about unemployment.

•GLA Economics has produced long-run projections of London’s employment since 2002. These projections are trend based and set out the long run path of employment considered most likely based on the historic data available at the time of construction. These are used within the GLA for planning to provide capacity to accommodate the longer-terms needs of the London economy. Given their importance to GLA policy planning, this note looks at how the GLA Economics’ employment projections have performed since 2002 and how this compares to projections from some other respected organisations.

•Although GLA Economics’ employment projections are consistently below outturn, much of this is the result of upward revisions to historic employment data (which underpin the projections model). Further, the projections perform relatively well when looking at the projected annual growth rate and average annual error in relation to outturn, with the accuracy of the projections generally improving the longer the time period over which the estimates are analysed.

•The revisions to historic employment data also drive much of the variability in the GLA Economics’ employment projections numbers over time. However, and by design, the revised projections are relatively consistent over time and average revisions between iterations in GLA Economics employment projections are relatively small.

For the year ending June 2024, approximately 1.2 million people migrated to the United Kingdom, while 479,000 people migrated from the UK, resulting in a net migration figure of 728,000. There have consistently been more people migrating to the United Kingdom than leaving it since 1993 when the net migration figure was negative 1,000. Although migration from the European Union has declined since the Brexit vote of 2016, migration from non-EU countries accelerated rapidly from 2021 onwards. In the year to June 2023, 968,000 people from non-EU countries migrated to the UK, compared with 129,000 from EU member states. Immigration and the next UK election Throughout 2023, immigration, along with the economy and healthcare, was consistently seen by UK voters as one of the top issues facing the country. Despite a pledge to deter irregular migration via small boats, and controversial plans to send asylum applicants to Rwanda while their claims are being processed, the current government is losing the trust of the public on this issue. As of February 2024, 20 percent of Britons thought the Labour Party would be the best party to handle immigration, compared with 16 percent who thought the Conservatives would handle it better. With the next UK election expected at some point in 2024, the Conservatives are battling to improve their public image on this and many other issues. Historical context of migration The first humans who arrived in the British Isles, were followed by acts of conquest and settlement from Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans. In the early modern period, there were also significant waves of migration from people fleeing religious or political persecution, such as the French Huguenots. More recently, large numbers of people also left Britain. Between 1820 and 1957, for example, around 4.5 million people migrated from Britain to America. After World War Two, immigration from Britain's colonies and former colonies was encouraged to meet labor demands. A key group that migrated from the Caribbean between the late 1940s and early 1970s became known as the Windrush generation, named after one of the ships that brought the arrivals to Britain.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Background
The British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey series began in 1983. The series is designed to produce annual measures of attitudinal movements to complement large-scale government surveys that deal largely with facts and behaviour patterns, and the data on party political attitudes produced by opinion polls. One of the BSA's main purposes is to allow the monitoring of patterns of continuity and change, and the examination of the relative rates at which attitudes, in respect of a range of social issues, change over time. Some questions are asked regularly, others less often. Funding for BSA comes from a number of sources (including government departments, the Economic and Social Research Council and other research foundations), but the final responsibility for the coverage and wording of the annual questionnaires rests with NatCen Social Research (formerly Social and Community Planning Research). The BSA has been conducted every year since 1983, except in 1988 and 1992 when core funding was devoted to the British Election Study (BES).

Further information about the series and links to publications may be found on the NatCen Social Research British Social Attitudes webpage.

BSA 2020

In 2020 the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic meant that the traditional face-to-face fieldwork was not feasible. In order to continue to deliver the survey and capture key attitudinal data during the pandemic, the 2020 BSA was transitioned to operate with a push-to-web design, with telephone opt-in to cover the offline population.

The BSA 2020 report, including Key Findings, is available from the NatCen BSA website.

Main Topics:
Each year, the BSA interview questionnaire contains a number of 'core' questions, which are repeated in most years. In addition, a wide range of background and classificatory questions is included. The remainder of the questionnaire is devoted to a series of questions (modules) on a range of social, economic, political and moral issues - some are asked regularly, others less often. Cross-indexes of those questions asked more than once appear in the reports.

In 2020 the questionnaire included the following sections: household composition; employment; politics; welfare; work and health; child maintenance; digital data; satisfaction with the NHS; the workplace and COVID-19; democracy; national identity; religion; ethnicity; disability; education; the EU referendum and general election; benefits and income; and pensions.

This survey is part of a continuing series designed to monitor trends in a wide range of social attitudes in Great Britain. The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is similar to the General Social Survey carried out by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) in the United States. The BSA questionnaire has two parts, one administered by an interviewer and the other completed by the respondent. As in the past, the 1997 interview questionnaire contained a number of "core" questions covering the major topic areas of defense, the economy, labor market participation, and the welfare state. The 1997 self-enumerated questionnaire was devoted to a series of questions on a range of social, economic, political, and moral issues. Topics covered (by section) are: (1) newspaper readership, (2) party identification, (3) housing, (4) politics, (5) public spending, (6) employment, (7) Europe, (8) countryside and transportation, (9) the lottery, and (10) administration. An international initiative funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), also contributes a module to the BSA. The topic of the ISSP module in this collection was work orientations. Additional demographic data included age, education, income, marital status, and religious and political affiliations.

Data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) on the likelihood to go to an organised event if required to wear a face covering or socially distance, covering the period 6 to 16 January 2022.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Database of Selected British Gallup Opinion Polls is a sample product, developed at The Data Archive by the Opinion Polls Unit, which illustrates how the texts and data might be used. The aim was to produce an information system which could be used by non-specialists in the field of data analysis - practitioners like journalists, teachers or legislators who could use a CD-ROM publication to find out what attitudinal changes had occurred over time or how people had indicated they would vote in the recent or distant past. It was also intended as a tool to show funders the potential of the material.
The CD-ROM contains a 'Microsoft (MS) Access' database, which combines survey text and matching SPSS output in the form of calculated frequencies, some of which are depicted in graphical form, and a text search facility. There are three versions of the database to suit different users' needs; version 2 for MS Access 2.0, version 7 for MS Access 95/7.0 and version 8 for MS Access 97. Potential users are advised to request the database version that is specific to their own version of MS Access.
The hierarchical pathway system is a series of forms navigated by using buttons and includes a description of the surveys as well as additional information on the changes made to the text for inputting purposes. A text only version of the original question text and calculated frequencies, together with the accompanying data and documentation files is also available on request.
SPSS portable files are also provided on the CD in order that the user has the option of carrying out further data manipulation.
A further directory consisting of 27 SPSS portable files containing coded parliamentary constituency information is also provided, along with a key to the codes. Users should note that constituency information for years 1958-1964 is currently unavailable.
Main Topics:

The database consists of one survey from January of each year (except for 1979, which uses February). A wide variety of political, social and economic subjects are covered including, among others, satisfaction with the government's performance; opposition policies; the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Also covered are attitudes towards specific political and economic issues and current problems, both domestic and international; recall of past vote and voting intention; social concerns, such as law and crime, nationalisation, immigration, public services etc. Throughout most of the surveys respondents are classified by age, gender, marital status, socio-economic group, employment status and occupation, self-assessed social class, trade union membership, size of household, number of children, terminal education age and car ownership.

Data on what people in Great Britain think are the most important environment issues facing Great Britain as of March 2020 shows that according to data published by IPSOS, 40 percent of respondents advised that dealing with waste is one of the top three environmental issues facing Great Britain, the most of any category. By contrast, only three percent of respondents believe soil erosion to be an important environmental issue.

In 2023 the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United Kingdom grew by 0.1 percent and is expected to grow by 1.1 percent in 2024 and two percent in 2025. Growth is expected to slow down to 1.8 percent in 2026, and then 1.5 percent in 2027 and 2028. 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 slips into recession in late 2023 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 this latest recession, however, the UK economy has been struggling with weak growth. In the eight quarters between 2022 and 2023, the economy grew in just half of them, falling in three, and stagnating in one. As the UK gears up for a likely general election in 2024, the economy has consistently been seen as one of the most important issues to people in Britain, ahead of health, immigration and the environment. As for which political party would handle the economy better, the ruling-Conservative party have trailed the Labour Party on this issue in polls since October 2022. High inflation persisting longer than expected One of the main factors that explains the UK's economic woes recently is rising prices. UK inflation accelerated sharply from late 2021 onwards, and reached a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022. Unfortunately for UK residents, wage growth has only recently caught up with inflation, with wages in real terms falling throughout for twenty months between November 2021 and June 2023. By January 2024, inflation had fallen to the more modest rate of four percent, but getting inflation down to such levels came at a price. The Bank of England raised interest rates throughout 2022 and 2023, which certainly played a part in the UK's weak economic performance during that time.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Background
The British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey series began in 1983. The series is designed to produce annual measures of attitudinal movements to complement large-scale government surveys that deal largely with facts and behaviour patterns, and the data on party political attitudes produced by opinion polls. One of the BSA's main purposes is to allow the monitoring of patterns of continuity and change, and the examination of the relative rates at which attitudes, in respect of a range of social issues, change over time. Some questions are asked regularly, others less often. Funding for BSA comes from a number of sources (including government departments, the Economic and Social Research Council and other research foundations), but the final responsibility for the coverage and wording of the annual questionnaires rests with NatCen Social Research (formerly Social and Community Planning Research). The BSA has been conducted every year since 1983, except in 1988 and 1992 when core funding was devoted to the British Election Study (BES).

Further information about the series and links to publications may be found on the NatCen Social Research British Social Attitudes webpage.

Since 2020 BSA has operated with a push-to-web design, with telephone opt-in to cover the offline population.

The latest BSA 2022 reports are available from the NatCen BSA website.

Main Topics:
Each year, the BSA interview questionnaire contains a number of 'core' questions, which are repeated in most years. In addition, a wide range of background and classificatory questions is included. The remainder of the questionnaire is devoted to a series of questions (modules) on a range of social, economic, political and moral issues - some are asked regularly, others less often. Cross-indexes of those questions asked more than once appear in the reports.

In 2022 the questionnaire included the following topics: Household Composition, Employment, Politics, Benefits and Income, National Identity and Ethnicity, Religion, Disability, Education, Changing Identities, Women in Work, Impact of Women's Work on Families, Gender and Chores Distribution in the Household, Marriages, Families and Sexual Relationships, Role of the Government, Nuclear Defence, Nuclear Power and the Environment, Housing, Work and Health, Digital, Pensions and Retirement, Poverty, Fraud and Error, Sexual Relationships, Parental Leave, Disability, Mental Health and the Workplace, Social Mobility, Social Class, Satisfaction with Health and Care Services, Health and Care Spending, NHS Priorities and Principles, Emergency Care and Treatment Plans, and Attitudes to Breastfeeding.

This data collection is part of a continuing series of surveys of the British electorate, begun by David Butler and Donald Stokes at Nuffield College, Oxford, in 1963, and continued at the University of Essex. This cross-section study was designed to yield a representative sample of eligible voters in Great Britain near the time of the general election on February 28, 1974. As with other surveys in the series, electors in Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands and Islands were excluded from the sampling frame. Personal interviews with 2,462 members of the British electorate took place in two waves between March and May. Respondents answered questions relating to their attitudes toward the general election and the strength of their political opinions and interest. Respondents were asked about their trust in government and their opinions of the Conservative, Labour, Liberal, Scottish Nationalist, and Plaid Cymru political parties (e.g., perceived differences among them, and knowledge and perception of party position/record). Respondents were also asked to reveal their past voting behavior (e.g., their first and second choices in the general election, other parties considered, choices in the 1970 and 1966 elections, frequency of discussion about politics, and direction and strength of party identification). Respondents were then asked for their views on the general election results along a variety of dimensions. Respondents also identified groups with too much or too little political power, as well as groups with whom they themselves identified. They were asked to rate several political parties and politicians and to express their views regarding a range of social issues relating to domestic and foreign affairs, including the mass media (e.g., attention to television and newspapers and perceived bias in newspapers), opinions on prices, strikes in general, the miners' strike, pensions, the Common Market, nationalization, social services, Communists, devolution, income tax and wage controls, and Britain's dependency on other countries (i.e., the United States, Russia, France, Germany, and Australia). Respondents were also asked to predict incomes, unemployment, and Britain's future economic situation. Other sets of questions probed for opinions on social mores and life satisfaction (e.g., life in general, personal financial status, today's standards, local government, change, and getting ahead). Background information includes age, sex, marital status, employment status, socioeconomic group, experience of unemployment in household, income, occupation, degree of supervision, and responsibility in job (for self and spouse). Information on father's vote, party choice, strength of party support, occupation, employment status, and social grade is also included.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The British Social Attitudes Survey began in 1983 with the aim of monitoring patterns of continuity and change in attitudes to social issues. It asks a representative sample of people questions covering social, political and moral issues.

This teaching dataset has been created from the original British Social Attitudes Survey, 2017 (SN 8450), which interviewed 3,988 adults aged 18 and over. It has been adapted for teaching with a reduced number of variables on the theme of attitudes towards the environment and politics.

Main Topics:

Topics covered include:

• views about climate change and actions related to the environment (car use, air travel, taxation)
• interest in politics
• voting behaviour and party identification
• attitude scales - left-right ideology and libertarian-authoritarian scale
• demographic variables