The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is causing a decrease in hotel occupancy rates in the United States. As a result, wages in the hotel sector could also see a drop. If occupancy rates were to drop by 50 percent in the U.S., this would potentially result in a loss of 300 billion U.S. dollars in wages in the hotel sector in 2020. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Average real wage growth has differed regionally between 2010 and 2022. Both Central and Western Asia and the Asia Pacific region (including China) have seen high rates of growth and have experienced minimal decreases. Growth peaked at 12.4% in 2021 for Central and Western Asia and 4.7% for the Asia Pacific region. However, much of the growth in the Asia Pacific region can be attributed to the growth of China. On the other hand, African countries have seen several years of wage decrease recently, the largest drop being in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (formerly known as the ONS Opinions Survey or Omnibus) is an omnibus survey that began in 1990, collecting data on a range of subjects commissioned by both the ONS internally and external clients (limited to other government departments, charities, non-profit organisations and academia).

Data are collected from one individual aged 16 or over, selected from each sampled private household. Personal data include data on the individual, their family, address, household, income and education, plus responses and opinions on a variety of subjects within commissioned modules.

The questionnaire collects timely data for research and policy analysis evaluation on the social impacts of recent topics of national importance, such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the cost of living, on individuals and households in Great Britain.

From April 2018 to November 2019, the design of the OPN changed from face-to-face to a mixed-mode design (online first with telephone interviewing where necessary). Mixed-mode collection allows respondents to complete the survey more flexibly and provides a more cost-effective service for customers.

In March 2020, the OPN was adapted to become a weekly survey used to collect data on the social impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the lives of people of Great Britain. These data are held in the Secure Access study, SN 8635, ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, Covid-19 Module, 2020-2022: Secure Access.

From August 2021, as coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions were lifting across Great Britain, the OPN moved to fortnightly data collection, sampling around 5,000 households in each survey wave to ensure the survey remains sustainable.

The OPN has since expanded to include questions on other topics of national importance, such as health and the cost of living. For more information about the survey and its methodology, see the ONS OPN Quality and Methodology Information webpage.

Secure Access Opinions and Lifestyle Survey data

Other Secure Access OPN data cover modules run at various points from 1997-2019, on Census religion (SN 8078), cervical cancer screening (SN 8080), contact after separation (SN 8089), contraception (SN 8095), disability (SNs 8680 and 8096), general lifestyle (SN 8092), illness and activity (SN 8094), and non-resident parental contact (SN 8093). See Opinions and Lifestyle Survey: Secure Access for details.

Main Topics:
Each month's questionnaire consists of two elements: core questions, covering demographic information, are asked each month together with non-core questions that vary from month to month.
The non-core questions for this month were:

Televisions (Module 177): this module was asked on behalf of the Department of National Heritage, to ascertain how many households have a television that did not work at the time and did not have another TV set that did work, and whether they intended to get the broken television set repaired in the next seven days after the interview took place.
Head of Household Information (Module 70a): this module covers occupation and supervisory status of head of household. It was asked only if the respondent was not head of household.
Withheld Deposits (Module 193): this module was asked on behalf of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), and would have been included in the Survey of English Housing, but no space was available. It was asked in England only, to help the DETR compile a sample of respondents who had at some time in the past three years had a deposit that they had paid prior to moving into privately rented accommodation withheld when they left.
Second Homes (Module 4): this module was asked on behalf of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). It had appeared in previous Omnibus surveys in a slightly different form. The module queried respondents on ownership of a second home by any member of the household and reasons for having the second home.
Drinking (Module 192): this module was asked on behalf of the Department of Health. It is based on the 'Drinking' module (113) asked in February and March 1997 (see SN:3920), with some questions omitted and some new questions added, which were designed to measure the likely impact on drinking of an initiative to add unit labelling to drinks sold in supermarkets and off-licences.
Alcohol brought into the UK from EU countries (Module 164): this module was asked on behalf of Customs and Excise, and aimed to assess the extent of cross-border shopping since the Single European Market was introduced. It is only concerned with alcohol bought in other EU countries in outlets other than duty-free shops.
Back Pain (Module 196): this module was...

Australia’s Synthetic and Natural Textile Manufacturing industry has faced and continues to face challenging conditions, namely from import competition, which constitutes the majority of domestic demand. Domestic manufacturers face challenges competing with critical importers, like China, who can significantly lower their prices because of their cheaper production costs. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant weakening in exports, a vital revenue source. Exports are yet to rebound to their pre-pandemic figures and have impeded industry growth. Conversely, imports only partially fell during the pandemic and have jumped significantly over the past five years. Revenue has declined an annualised 1.7% through 2023-24 to $535.7 million. This trend includes a 0.7% drop in 2023-24. Many manufacturers look to move production offshore because of cheaper operating costs overseas. Establishments and enterprises have declined and will continue to do so. Capital investment has alleviated labour at stages of the production process. However, investment in automation technology like robotic fabric rolling systems and computerised fault mapping equipment requires highly skilled workers with larger salaries. This has led to a stagnation in wages. This, coupled with falling establishments, has led to a drop in employment. Hikes in the cash rate associated with relatively high inflation have weighed heavily on domestic sales for textiles, which have hurt profit margins. The industry is anticipated to continue declining over the next five years. Revenue is forecast to decline at an annualised 1.1% over the five years through 2028-29 to $507.6 million. Import competition is forecast to continue to dominate the industry with over 75% of domestic demand and could even reach 80%. Domestic manufacturers fight this trend as they are expected to shift their focus towards commission-based niche and premium textiles rather than compete at the lower price points offered most commonly by imports. The industry will achieve some longevity by shifting towards a circular economy, focusing on recycling and waste reduction. This will reduce costs in the long term for domestic manufacturers and help them remain competitive for longer.

In 2025, it is predicted that average earnings in the United Kingdom will increase by 4.3 percent, compared with a growth rate of 4.7 percent in 2024, and 7.6 percent in 2023, the fastest average earnings growth in this time period. By contrast, average earnings did not grow at all in 2020, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earnings vs inflation Although earnings grew at their fastest pace between 2021 and 2023 in this provided time period, this was offset by the period of very high inflation that occurred alongside it. This reached a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022, with inflation only reaching the typical target rate of two percent in May 2024. Despite strong wage growth, the average UK worker saw their earnings fall relative to inflation between November 2021 and May 2023. As of January 2024, weekly wages in the UK were still growing faster than inflation, at two percent for regular pay and 1.7 percent for pay including bonuses. Full-time earnings reach over 37,000 GBP in 2024 Full-time employees in the United Kingdom earned an average annual salary of 37,430 British pounds in 2024, compared with just over 34,963 in the previous year. As of this year, men reported higher earnings than women did, with the UK reporting a gender pay gap of 13.1 percent for 2024, compared with 27.5 percent in 1997. Workers in their 40s had the highest average earnings by age group, at approximately 56,000 for men, and 44,000 for women. Although men earned more than women in all age groups, this gap was smallest among workers aged 18 to 21.

The minimum gross wage per hour in Poland as of July 2024 amounted to 28.1 zloty. As of January 2025, the minimum hourly wage will increase to 30.5 zloty gross, an increase of 10.1 percent. Purchasing power standards (PPS) in the CEE region From 2009 to 2023, almost every country in Central and Eastern Europe experienced increased GDP per capita in purchasing power standards. For example, Czechia's GDP per capita amounted to 91 PPS last year, reaching the highest level among Central and Eastern European countries but lower than the EU average. A similar situation occurred in Poland, one of the countries experiencing an increase in GDP per capita, amounting to 79 PPS. On the other hand, the highest actual individual consumption per capita expressed in purchasing power standards in the CEE region was recorder in Lithuania, Slovenia, and Romania. However, all Central and Eastern European countries reached actual individual consumption per capita below the EU average. Inflation’s effect on Poles Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation has increased drastically. That caused people to look at their expenditure of salaries more responsibly but also made them want to earn more. From 2021 to 2023, a fair share of Poles felt that food prices and fuel increased the most over the year. In 2022, due to the rising of some products and services in recent months in Poland, 75 percent of people bought less and looked for cheaper products during daily shopping. Moreover, around 60 percent of Poles gave up higher expenses to put them off for later. Inflation causes people to look for cheaper products. However, only about 25 percent of Poles had higher trust in the promotions due to inflation.

The United Kingdom's economy grew by 1.1 percent in 2024, after a growth rate of 0.4 percent in 2023, 4.8 percent in 2022, 8.6 percent in 2021, and a record 10.3 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.

News audiences in Norway were the most likely to pay for online news according to a global study on paid digital news content consumption, with 40 percent having paid for news online in the last year. Ranked second was Sweden, followed by Australia, Finland, and the United States.

With the changing media landscape leading to more and more consumers turning to digital sources to access the news, publishers are adding paywalls on their sites. However, not all consumers are equally inclined to pay for digital news content. UK news audiences for example were substantially less likely to pay for online news than U.S. consumers.

Why pay for online news?

The reasons for paying for news are diverse and dependent on various factors. The digitalization of news allows stories to be shared and disseminated on a global scale, but not all sources are reliable or credible. For consumers, it is often difficult to identify trustworthy news sources, and as such which sources they would happily pay for.

Consumers may also be reluctant to pay for news because of the sheer amount of free content online. Whilst the availability of free content made news more accessible, at the same time this impacts journalists and publishers. In Finland for example, this has led to a correlated decrease in sales of printed content. As traditional print publications move online, there is also a growing reliance on advertising to generate revenue. Users are encouraged to pay for access to restricted material as publishers limit content to members only. Consumer’s willingness to pay was seen to be dependent on content, with Americans happier to pay for news than features or e-magazines.

Impact of the coronavirus

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing millions across the globe to stay at home, having access to digital news has never been more crucial, accordingly an increase of subscribers paying for premium news content could be expected. However the health crisis has also led to economic hardship for many, which may instead lead to people cutting out luxuries such as paid news subscriptions. In the UK for example, 2020 saw a decrease in people paying for news content compared to the previous year. With the pandemic dominating news reports, 2020 also saw audiences experience news fatigue, and after a year of news coverage saturated with coronavirus updates, consumers may feel the need to switch off entirely.

The median annual earnings in the United Kingdom was 37,430 British pounds per year in 2024. Annual earnings varied significantly by region, ranging from 47,455 pounds in London to 32,960 pounds in the North East. Along with London, two other areas of the UK had median annual earnings above the UK average; South East England, and Scotland, at 39,038 pounds and 38,315 pounds respectively. Regional Inequality in the UK Various other indicators highlight the degree of regional inequality in the UK, especially between London and the rest of the country. Productivity in London, as measured by output per hour, was 26.2 percent higher than the UK average. By comparison, every other UK region, except the South East, fell below the UK average for productivity. In gross domestic product per head, London was also an outlier. The average GDP per head in the UK was just over 37,000 pounds in 2023, but for London it was almost 64,000 pounds. Again, the South East's GDP per head was slightly above the UK average, with every other region below it. Within London itself, there is also a great degree of inequality. In 2023, for example, the average earnings in Kensington and Chelsea were 964 pounds per week, compared with 675 pounds in Barking and Dagenham. Wages continue to grow in 2025 In March 2025, weekly wages in the UK were growing by around 5.6 percent, or 1.8 percent when adjusted for inflation. For almost two years, wages have grown faster than inflation after a long period where prices were rising faster than wages between 2021 and 2023. This was due to a sustained period of high inflation in the UK, which peaked in October 2022 at 11.1 percent. Although inflation started to slow the following month, it wasn't until June 2023 that wages started to outpace inflation. By this point, the damage caused by high energy and food inflation had led to the the worst Cost of Living Crisis in the UK for a generation.

Labor unions, or trade unions as they are known in Europe, are organizations formed by workers in order to represent their collective interests, particularly in relation to wages and working conditions. Historically, labor unions emerged during the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century to represent the interests of industrial workers, who flocked to work in factories, mines, and other growing manufacturing enterprises. In most high-income countries, labor unions reached their peak during the post-WWII period, when governments mediated between the interests of labor unions and the owners of capital. With the economic crises of the 1970s, however, the labor movement suffered historic defeats in Europe and North America, with union density declining rapidly in many countries due to a host of pro-market and anti-union policies which have come to be referred to as 'neoliberalism'. Labor unions today In the twenty-first century, labor unions have retreated from their key role in national economic decisions in many countries, as globalization has lowered barriers to movement of labor, enabled 'off-shoring' jobs to lower wage countries, and promoted the lowering of labor standards in order to pursue cost competitiveness. In spite of this trend, certain regions still showcase high levels of union density and retain their traditions of unions being involved in determining economic policy. Notably, the Nordic countries make up five of the top six most unionized countries, with Iceland in first place being followed by Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and then Norway.

Other notable trends among the top placed countries are states which have had a historical relationship with communism (often a key driver of the labor movement), such as Cuba, Vietnam, China, and Kazakhstan. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, labor unions and the wider labor movement has become more prominent, as workers have sought to fight for health & safety conditions in the workplace, as well as to combat high inflation related to the pandemic.

In March 2025, the employment rate in the United Kingdom was 75 percent, down from 75.1 percent in the previous month. After almost dropping below 70 percent in 2011, the employment rate in the United Kingdom started to climb at a relatively fast pace, peaking in early 2020. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the employment declined to 74.6 percent by January 2021. Although not quite at pre-pandemic levels, the employment rate has since recovered. Hot UK labor market cools in 2023 Although unemployment in the UK spiked at 5.1 percent in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it fell throughout most of 2022, to just 3.6 percent in August 2022. Around that time, the number of job vacancies in the UK was also at quite high levels, reaching a peak of 1.3 million by May 2022. The strong labor market put employees in quite a strong position, perhaps encouraging the high number of resignations that took place around that time. While wage growth has also been strong since 2022, these gains were cancelled-out for a long period between 2021 and 2023 when inflation grew faster than wages. By July 2023, unemployment had bounced back to 4.3 percent, while the number of job vacancies fell below one million in August 2023 for the first time since August 2021. UK in recession at end of 2023 Although the UK labor market has loosened since 2022, it has generally remained in good health, with unemployment low by historical standards. Inflation also fell throughout 2023, from 10.1 percent at the beginning of the year, to four percent by December. Getting inflation down to more acceptable levels, however, came at the expense of raising the Bank of England's already high-interest rate throughout 2023. The knock-on effect of higher borrowing costs likely did little to spur economic growth that year, with GDP growing by just 0.1 percent in 2023. Even this meager economic growth was only achieved due to growth in the first half of the year. In the second half of 2023, the economy shrank in two consecutive quarters, meaning the UK is officially in recession heading into a probable election year.

According to a survey conducted between July 9 and July 11, 2022, 45 percent of Americans thought that Joe Biden was highly responsible for the current trend in the inflation rate. This is compared to 26 percent of Americans who said President Biden did not have a lot of responsibility for the current inflation rate.

Inflation in the U.S. Global events in 2022 had a significant impact on the United States. Inflation rose from 1.4 percent in January 2021 to 9.1 percent in June 2022. Significantly higher prices of basic goods led to increased concern over the state of the economy, and the ability to cover increasing monthly costs with the same income. Low interest rates, COVID-19-related supply constraints, corporate profiteering, and strong consumer spending had already put pressure on prices before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Despite rising wages on paper, the rapid growth of consumer prices resulted in an overall decline in real hourly earnings in the first half of 2022.

How much control does Joe Biden have over inflation? The bulk of economic performance and the inflation rate is determined by factors outside the President’s direct control, but U.S. presidents are often held accountable for it. Some of those factors are market forces, private business, productivity growth, the state of the global economy, and policies of the Federal Reserve. Although high-spending decisions such as the 2021 COVID-19 relief bill may have contributed to rising inflation rates, the bill has been seen by economists as a necessary intervention for preventing a recession at the time, as well as being of significant importance to low-income workers impacted by the pandemic.

The most important tool for curbing inflation and controlling the U.S. economy is the Federal Reserve. The Reserve has the ability to set, raise, and lower interest rates and determine the wider monetary policy for the United States – something out of the president’s control. In June 2022, the Reserve announced it would raise interest rates 0.75 percent for the second time that year – hoisting the rate to a target range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent – in an attempt to slow consumer demand and balance demand with supply. However, it can often take time before the impacts of interventions by the Federal Reserve are seen in the public’s day-to-day lives. Most economists expect this wave of inflation to pass in a year to 18 months.

In 2024, Japan had an average inflation rate estimated at 2.74 percent, marking the highest rate of inflation in Japan in almost a decade. However, this figure was still very low compared to most other major economies, such as Japan's fellow G7 members, four of which had inflation rates around six or seven percent in 2023 due to the global inflation crisis. Why is Japan's inflation rate lower? There are a number of contributing factors to Japan's relatively low inflation rate, even during economic crises. Japan eased its Covid restrictions more slowly than most other major economies, this prevented post-pandemic consumer spending that may have driven inflation through supply chain issues caused by higher demand. As the majority of Japan's food and energy comes from overseas, and has done so for decades, the government has mechanisms in place to prevent energy and wheat prices from rising too quickly. Because of this, Japan was able to shield its private sector from many of the negative knock on effects from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which had a significant impact on both sectors globally. Persistent deflation and national debt An additional factor that has eased the impact of inflation on Japan's economy is the fact that it experienced deflation before the pandemic. Deflation has been a persistent problem in Japan since the asset price bubble burst in 1992, and has been symptomatic of Japan's staggering national debt thereafter. For almost 30 years, a combination of quantitative easing, low interest rates (below 0.5 percent since 1995, and at -0.1% since 2016), and a lack of spending due to low wages and an aging population have combined to give Japan the highest national debt in the world in absolute terms, and second-highest debt in relation to its GDP, after Venezuela. Despite this soaring debt, Japan remains the fourth-largest economy in the world, behind the U.S., China, and Germany.

By the end of the UK's job retention scheme, which ran from April 2020, to September 2021, approximately 11.7 million jobs, from 1.3 million different employers, were furloughed in the United Kingdom. The day with the most jobs furloughed at once was May 8, 2020, when 8.86 million jobs were on the job retention scheme. The scheme, introduced in response to the economic damage caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, covered 80 percent of an employees' usual monthly wage, up to 2,500 British pounds a month. How much did the scheme cost? The UK government spent approximately 70 billion British pounds on the job retention scheme. Due to spending commitments such as this, as well as depressed revenue sources, UK government finances took a severe hit in the 2020/21 financial year. Government borrowing was approximately 314.6 billion pounds in 2020/21, while government debt as a share of GDP shot up from around 80 percent in 2018/19 to almost 97 percent by 2020/21. Getting this debt down has proven difficult in subsequent financial years, with high inflation, war in Ukraine, and the Cost of Living Crisis putting even more pressure on public finances. Popular scheme not enough to save Sunak Former Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, held the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer throughout the duration of the furlough scheme. While this scheme and Sunak himself were popular for much of that time, Sunak saw his popularity tumble. Shortly after succeeding Liz Truss as Prime Minister in October 2021, Sunak was seen by 30 percent of people as being the best person for his job, but by May 2024, just before he announced the 2024 General Election, just 19 percent of people thought he made the best Prime Minister. Sunak and the Conservatives went on to suffer a historic loss at this election, winning just 121 seats, compared with the 365 won in the 2019 General Election.

Net annual earnings for a single earner family with two children in the European Union have increased from 25,434 euros in 2013 to 33,939 euros over the period from 2013 to 2023. Net earnings received a boost during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, in spite of gross earnings decreasing in 2020, due to reduced taxes and increased family allowances.

Portugal, Canada, and the United States were the countries with the highest house price to income ratio in 2024. In all three countries, the index exceeded 130 index points, while the average for all OECD countries stood at 116.2 index points. The index measures the development of housing affordability and is calculated by dividing nominal house price by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 set as a base year when the index amounted to 100. An index value of 120, for example, would mean that house price growth has outpaced income growth by 20 percent since 2015. How have house prices worldwide changed since the COVID-19 pandemic? House prices started to rise gradually after the global financial crisis (2007–2008), but this trend accelerated with the pandemic. The countries with advanced economies, which usually have mature housing markets, experienced stronger growth than countries with emerging economies. Real house price growth (accounting for inflation) peaked in 2022 and has since lost some of the gain. Although, many countries experienced a decline in house prices, the global house price index shows that property prices in 2023 were still substantially higher than before COVID-19. Renting vs. buying In the past, house prices have grown faster than rents. However, the home affordability has been declining notably, with a direct impact on rental prices. As people struggle to buy a property of their own, they often turn to rental accommodation. This has resulted in a growing demand for rental apartments and soaring rental prices.

For the 2025/26 financial year, the annual salary for Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom was 93,904 British pounds. This marked an increase of around 2,558 pounds when compared with the previous year, when the annual salary was 91,346 pounds. In 2021/22, there was no increase in pay for MPs in the UK because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the annual salary remaining at 81,932 pounds per year at that time. Comparison with average earnings In 2023, the median earnings for full-time workers in the UK was 34,963 pounds a year, meaning that MPs earned more than 50,000 pounds more than the average worker. The appropriate salary for MPs is a charged issue in the UK, especially with the country currently facing its worst Cost of Living Crisis in decades. As of January 2024, just over half of Britons were facing higher living costs than a year earlier, while 53 percent thought the economy was the main issue facing the country. MPs themselves are not responsible for deciding their pay, and since 2011, decisions regarding MPs pay and expenses lie with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). House of Commons demographics As of the last election most of the elected MPs were aged between 50 and 59, with only 21 of them in their twenties or younger. In terms of gender, there are almost two male MPs for every one woman, although this is a much higher than in 1979 when only 3 percent of MPs were women. Since 1987, the number of non-white MPs has increased from four Labour MPs to 65 in 2019, 41 Labour Party MPs, 22 Conservatives, and two who belong to the Liberal Democrats. With a 2024 general election likely, the composition of parliament is set to change significantly. Although a Labour majority is currently the most likely outcome based on recent polls, whichever party wins will probably lead the most ethnically diverse parliament in history, as well as the one with the highest number of female MPs.

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.

In 2024, gross domestic product per capita in the United Kingdom was 37,044 British pounds, compared with 37,033 pounds in the previous year. In general, while GDP per capita has grown quite consistently throughout this period, there are noticeable declines, especially between 2007 and 2009, and between 2019 and 2020, due to the Global Financial Crisis, and COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. Why is GDP per capita stagnating when the economy is growing? During the last two years that GDP per capita fell and then stagnated in the UK, the overall economy grew by 0.4 percent in 2023 and 1.1 percent in 2024. While the overall UK economy is therefore larger than it was in 2022, the UK's population has grown at a faster rate, resulting in the lower GDP per capita figure. The long-term slump in the UK's productivity, as measured by output per hour worked, has meant that the gap between GDP growth and GDP per capita growth has been widening for some time. Economy remains the main concern of UK voters As of February 2025, the economy was seen as the main issue facing the UK, just ahead of immigration, health, and several other problems in the country. While Brexit was seen as the most important issue before COVID-19, and concerns about health were dominant throughout 2020 and 2021, the economy has generally been the primary facing voters issue since 2022. The surge in inflation throughout 2022 and 2023, and the impact this had on wages and living standards, resulted in a very tough period for UK households. As of January 2025, 57 percent of households were still noticing rising living costs, although this is down from a peak of 91 percent in August 2022.

In 2023, 17.9 percent of Black people living in the United States were living below the poverty line, compared to 7.7 percent of white people. That year, the total poverty rate in the U.S. across all races and ethnicities was 11.1 percent. Poverty in the United States Single people in the United States making less than 12,880 U.S. dollars a year and families of four making less than 26,500 U.S. dollars a year are considered to be below the poverty line. Women and children are more likely to suffer from poverty, due to women staying home more often than men to take care of children, and women suffering from the gender wage gap. Not only are women and children more likely to be affected, racial minorities are as well due to the discrimination they face. Poverty data Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the United States had the third highest poverty rate out of all OECD countries in 2019. However, the United States' poverty rate has been fluctuating since 1990, but has been decreasing since 2014. The average median household income in the U.S. has remained somewhat consistent since 1990, but has recently increased since 2014 until a slight decrease in 2020, potentially due to the pandemic. The state that had the highest number of people living below the poverty line in 2020 was California.