Consumer Confidence in the United Kingdom increased to -18 points in June from -20 points in May of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United Kingdom Consumer Confidence - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

The economy was seen by 49 percent of people in the UK as one of the top three issues facing the country in June 2025. The ongoing cost of living crisis afflicting the UK, driven by high inflation, is still one of the main concerns of Britons. Immigration has generally been the second most important issue since the middle of 2024, just ahead of health, which was seen as the third-biggest issue in the most recent month. 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. .

Inflation Rate in the United Kingdom decreased to 3.40 percent in May from 3.50 percent in April of 2025. This dataset provides - United Kingdom Inflation Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Unemployment Rate in the United Kingdom increased to 4.60 percent in April from 4.50 percent in March of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United Kingdom Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United Kingdom was worth 3380.85 billion US dollars in 2023, according to official data from the World Bank. The GDP value of the United Kingdom represents 3.21 percent of the world economy. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United Kingdom GDP - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

BBC One had the greatest weekly reach among the BBC's television services in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. All channels in the ranking experienced a decline in audience reach over the past years. The BBC celebrates its 100th birthday and enters a period of uncertainty The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the public broadcasting service of the United Kingdom and the oldest broadcasting organization worldwide. It was established in London on October 18, 1922, but after an entire century on air, the BBC now enters an uncertain future in terms of funding. Around 70 percent of the BBC's annual income is generated via license fees, but as the government announced the termination of this tax by 2027, the BBC will have to explore new avenues to stay afloat. So what will the future hold for the BBC and its programming now that consumers will no longer be required to pay the annual fee? Sources speculate that funding alternatives could include a subscription service, part-privatization, or direct government funding. The portfolio goes with the (digital) flow The BBC operates several television channels in the UK and worldwide, including the news-only channel BBC News and the politics-centered BBC Parliament. As of 2024, BBC One remained the company's flagship service, and data showed that the lion's share of the BBC's total television programming spending was allocated towards BBC One content that year. In addition to offering cross-genre television and radio broadcasts, the corporation keeps expanding its range of online services to resonate with audiences in the UK and abroad. The BBC runs a designated news platform alongside the on-demand video streaming platform BBC iPlayer.

As of June 2025, approximately 22 percent of people in the UK would vote for the governing Labour Party in a potential general election, behind Reform UK on 28 percent, with the Conservatives third on 18 percent. Since returning to power, support for the Labour Party has fallen considerably, with the government's sinking approval rating approaching the unpopularity of the previous government. Labour's return to power in 2024 On May 22, 2024, Rishi Sunak announced his decision to hold the 2024 general election on July 4. Sunak's surprise announcement came shortly after some positive economic figures were released in the UK, and he may have hoped this would boost his poor job ratings and perhaps also his government's low approval ratings. This was a long-shot, however, and as predicted in the polls, Labour won the 2024 general election by a landslide, winning 412 out of 650 seats. The sting in the tale for the Labour Party was that despite this large majority, they won a relatively low share of the votes and almost immediately saw their popularity fall in the second half of 2024. Sunak's five pledges in 2023 After a tough 2022, in which Britain suffered through its worst cost of living crisis in a generation, the economy was consistently identified as the main issue facing the country, just ahead of healthcare. To respond to these concerns, Rishi Sunak started 2023 with five pledges; halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting times, and stop small boats. By the end of that year, just one pledge can be said to have been fully realized, with CPI inflation falling from 10.1 percent at the start of 2023 to 4 percent by the end of it. There is some ambiguity regarding the success of some of the other pledges. The economy shrank in the last two quarters of 2023 but started to grow again in early 2024. National debt increased slightly, while small boat arrivals declined compared to 2022, but were still higher than in most other years. The pledge to cut NHS waiting times was not fulfilled either, with the number of people awaiting treatment rising in 2023.

In 2023, there were estimated to be 956,116 people who were aged 35 in the United Kingdom, the most of any age in this year. The two largest age groups during this year were 30-34, and 35 to 39, at 4.7 million and 4.64 million people respectively. There is also a noticeable spike of 693,679 people who were aged 76, which is due to the high number of births that followed in the aftermath of the Second World War. Over one million born in 1964 In post-war Britain, there have only been two years when the number of live births was over one million, in 1947 and in 1964. The number of births recorded in the years between these two years was consistently high as well, with 1955 having the fewest births in this period at 789,000. This meant that until relatively recently, Baby Boomers were the largest generational cohort in the UK. As of 2022, there were approximately 13.76 million Baby Boomers, compared with 14 million in Generation X, 14.48 million Millennials, and 12.9 million members of Gen Z. The youngest generation in the UK, Generation Alpha numbered approximately 7.5 million in the same year. Median age to hit 44.5 years by 2050 The population of the United Kingdom is aging at a substantial rate, with the median age of the population expected to reach 44.5 years by 2050. By comparison, in 1950 the average age in the United Kingdom stood at 34.9 years. This phenomenon is not unique to the United Kingdom, with median age of people worldwide increasing from 23.6 years in 1950 to a forecasted 41.9 years by 2100. As of 2022, the region with the oldest median age in the UK was South West England, at 43.9 years, compared with 35.9 in London, the region with the youngest median age.

Social media's influence in the United Kingdom continues to grow, with **** million active users as of February 2025, representing ** percent of the population. This penetration rate surpasses the global average of **** percent, positioning the UK as a leader in social media adoption. The country's high usage reflects a broader trend of increasing social media engagement worldwide, particularly in Northern and Western Europe. Global social media landscape The social media landscape is rapidly evolving, with China currently hosting over one billion users and India projected to become the largest social media audience by 2029. Notably, Nigeria is expected to see a staggering *** percent increase in its online networking audience between 2023 and 2029. In 2024, global social media users spent an average of *** minutes per day on social networks. Facebook is still the market leader Facebook is the most widely utilized social media platform globally, and India boasts *** million Facebook users, making it the leading country in terms of Facebook audience size. As of April 2024, it was found that men between the ages of ** and ** were the largest audience for Facebook, accounting for **** percent of global users. Furthermore, Facebooks second-largest audience base could be found with men aged 18 to 24 years.

Cars were the most valuable type of commodity exported from the United Kingdom in 2024, with exports of this commodity valued at approximately 32.9 billion British pounds. Mechanical power generators were the second-most valuable commodity in 2024, with an export value of around 32.7 billion pounds in this year. By comparison, the most valuable import commodity was also cars, amounting to over 38.4 billion British pounds. The next most valuable import commodity was medicinal and pharmaceutical products at over 27.2 million pounds in this year. UK main trading partners Although the share of both imports and exports from the European Union has been declining recently, the single market is still by far the UK's main trading partner. In terms of individual countries, the United States was the main export partner in 2024 at 16.1 percent of all exports, while Germany was the UK's main import partner with 12.5 percent of imports coming from there in 2024. A main argument of the Leave vote, was that the UK should seek to improve up its trade with the rest of the world, outside of Europe. The success of this 'Global Britain' strategy, depends on the UK significantly scaling up its trade with other continents, with countries outside of Europe still responsible for far less trade than European ones. Brexit and EU trade At the start of 2021, the United Kingdom exited both the European Single Market and the European Customs Union, with the UK's trading relationship with the EU now determined by a new Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). Although the TCA continued tariff and quota-free goods trade between the EU and UK, a number of customs checks came into force, increasing trade friction between the two parties. The status of Northern Ireland in the initial agreement was also different from the rest of the UK. Goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain were initially subject to customs checks, to prevent customs checks occurring at the border with the Republic of Ireland. In February 2023, it was announced that under a new EU-UK agreement called the Windsor Framework, some goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain will be subject to fewer checks.

The variety of products that can be purchased online is continuously growing. Among UK consumers the two most popular categories for online purchases are Clothing and Shoes. 58 percent and 42 percent of consumers respectively chose these answers in our representative online survey. The survey was conducted online among 4,746 respondents in the UK, in 2025. Looking to gain valuable insights about customers of online shops across the globe? Check out our reports about consumers of online shops worldwide. These reports offer the readers a comprehensive overview of customers of eCommerce brands: who they are; what they like; what they think; and how to reach them.

In 2024, there were approximately 170,500 police officers in the United Kingdom, compared with around 155,000 in 2003. After reaching a high of 172,000 officers in 2010, the number of police officers in the UK fell to just 150,000 officers by 2017. Although that trend has reversed since this point, there are still approximately 1,000 fewer police officers in 2023 than there were in 2010. Why did police numbers fall? The fall in police numbers can be linked to a reduction in government spending on the police. In the aftermath of the 2008 recession, the coalition government of 2010 carried out a policy of austerity, vowing to cut government spending across the board. For the police service expenditure fell sharply, from 19.3 billion British pounds a year in 2009/10 to just 16.35 billion pounds in 2013/14, leading to cuts in personnel. Police service expenditure remained below 17 billion pounds a year until spending started to increase in 2017/18, with the most recent figure of 25.29 billion pounds for the 2022/23 year even higher than 2009/10. Rising crime from the mid-2010s Between 2002 and 2014, crime rates fell across all four jurisdictions of the UK, with the sharpest declines occurring in England and Wales, and Scotland. The falling crime rates seen during this period went into reverse from that year onwards, however, with the crime rate for England and Wales jumping from 62 crimes per 1,000 people to 89.5 by 2019/20. Although some crimes such as theft stayed at relatively low levels, the number of violent crimes has seen a sharp increase recently, rising from 634,600 offences in 2013/14 to over 2.1 million in 2022/23, for England and Wales.

As of May 2025, 36 percent of people in Great Britain thought that Keir Starmer was better for the job of Prime Minister than the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, with 25 percent believing she would be better for the job. Although Starmer is currently seen as better suited for the job as Prime Minister, the approval ratings for his government have declined considerably since winning the election, sinking to a low of -54 percent in March 2025. Sunak vs Starmer Shortly after succeeding Truss as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak was seen by 30 percent of people as the best person for the job, just four percentage points behind Keir Starmer. Twenty months later, however, on the eve of the 2024 general election, just 19 percent of people thought Sunak was the best choice, compared with 35 percent for Starmer. Despite pledging to address the main issues facing the country at the start of 2023, Sunak struggled to convince voters. Although inflation peaked in 2022, and declined throughout 2023, the cost of living crisis afflicting people in the UK lingered on, while progress on improving the NHS proved elusive. The Conservatives suffered a clear defeat in the 2024 election, winning just 121 seats, compared with 365 in 2019. Scandals and mini budgets After becoming Prime Minister in late 2019, a series of controversies harmed the popularity of Boris Johnson among voters, and eventually forced his resignation. The Partygate scandal, which revealed that senior government officials held parties at Downing Street, during the COVID-19 lockdown, was the most severe. When the issue came to a head in Summer 2022, Johnson survived the initial political backlash, including an attempted vote of no-confidence in his leadership, but he was forced to resign his position after a wave of senior ministers resigned from his government between July 5-7, 2022. Although Liz Truss won the leadership contest that followed the resignation of Johnson, her time in office was by far the shortest of any Prime Minister. After an unorthodox mini-budget resulted in an acute economic crisis, she resigned her position after less than 50 days in the job

The child mortality rate in the United Kingdom, for children under the age of five, was 329 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that approximately one in every three children born in 1800 did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just four deaths per thousand births.

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.