The economy was seen by 52 percent of people in the UK as one of the top three issues facing the country in July 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. .

As of July 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 health were seen as more important issues than immigration, which was the joint-second most important issue for the general population.

Dataset - Social problems in the UK : an introduction in the news

This dataset contains all sign incidents in York recorded in City of York Council’s customer relationship management (CRM) tool from January 2021 onwards. Please note the dataset excludes incidents created in the last 14 days and that incidents with no end date are currently unresolved. For further information about sign problems and reporting sign problems please see the City of York Council’s website. *Please note that the data published within this dataset is a live API link to CYC's GIS server. Any changes made to the master copy of the data will be immediately reflected in the resources of this dataset. The date shown in the "Last Updated" field of each GIS resource reflects when the data was first published.

In a ********* affordability survey, around ** percent of respondents in the United Kingdom (UK) indicated that they were making changes to their communication services, while ** percent said that they were reducing their spending elsewhere so that they can continue to afford these services. This was the first time since the beginning of the study in 2020 that reducing spending elsewhere received the highest response rate, along with the highest number of UK respondents in general, almost *********, who indicated that they are struggling to pay for their communication services including phones, broadband, television, and streaming services.

Sections distribution - Social problems in the UK : an introduction in the news

United Kingdom Number of New Issues: UK data was reported at 9.000 Unit in Oct 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 2.000 Unit for Sep 2018. United Kingdom Number of New Issues: UK data is updated monthly, averaging 4.000 Unit from Jan 2018 (Median) to Oct 2018, with 10 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 15.000 Unit in Mar 2018 and a record low of 2.000 Unit in Sep 2018. United Kingdom Number of New Issues: UK data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by London Stock Exchange. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.Z012: London Stock Exchange: Number of Issues and Cancellations.

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.

AimsThe aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence and temporal trend of common mental health problems (CMHPs) in the UK by industrial classification from 2012–2014 to 2016–2018 while evaluating the corresponding gender disparities.MethodsWe used data from the Health Survey for England. CMPH was judged by a 12-item General Health Questionnaire. Industrial classifications were defined using the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities. Data were fitted by the logistic models.ResultsIn this study, 19,581 participants covering 20 industries were included. In total, 18.8% of participants screened positive for CMHP in 2016–2018, which significantly increased from 16.0% in 2012–2014 [adjusted OR (AOR) = 1.17, 95% CI 1.08–1.27]. In 2016–2018, the prevalence of CMHP ranged from 6.2% in the industry of mining and quarrying to 23.8% in the industry of accommodation and food service activities. From 2012–2014 to 2016–2018, none of the 20 industries studied experienced significant decreases in the above prevalence; conversely, three industries saw significant increases, including wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (AOR for trend = 1.32, 95% CI 1.04–1.67), construction (AOR for trend = 1.66, 95% CI 1.23–2.24), and other service activities, which cannot be classified (AOR for trend = 1.94, 95% CI 1.06–3.55). In total, 11 of the 20 industries studied had significant gender disparities against women, with the smallest gap being in the industry of transport and storage (AOR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.09–2.0) and the highest in the industry of arts, entertainment, and recreation (AOR = 6.19, 95% CI 2.94–13.03). From 2012–2014 to 2016–2018, gender disparities were narrowed only in two industries, including human health and social work activities (AOR for trend = 0.45, 95% CI 0.27–0.74), and transport and storage (AOR for trend = 0.5, 95% CI 0.27–0.91).ConclusionThe prevalence of CMHPs has increased and had a wide variation across industries in the UK. There were disparities against women, and the gender disparities have been keeping almost no improvement from 2012–2014 to 2016–2018.

Sources distribution - Social problems in the UK : an introduction in the news

This dataset contains current unresolved water and drainage incidents in York recorded in City of York Council’s customer relationship management (CRM) tool from December 2019 onwards. Please note the dataset excludes incidents created in the last 14 days. For all water and drainage incidents - unresolved and closed ones, please see the Water and Drainage Problems - All Incidents dataset. For further information about water and drainage problems and reporting water and drainage problems please see the City of York Council’s website. *Please note that the data published within this dataset is a live API link to CYC's GIS server. Any changes made to the master copy of the data will be immediately reflected in the resources of this dataset. The date shown in the "Last Updated" field of each GIS resource reflects when the data was first published.

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 ***** from the list provided, the two issues that were chosen by over **% of respondents were the economy and health.

Evolution, trends - Social problems in the UK : an introduction in the news

Dataset population: Persons

Age

Age is derived from the date of birth question and is a person's age at their last birthday, at 27 March 2011. Dates of birth that imply an age over 115 are treated as invalid and the person's age is imputed. Infants less than one year old are classified as 0 years of age.

Long-term health problem or disability

A long-term health problem or disability that limits a person's day-to-day activities and has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 months. This includes problems that are related to old age.

People were asked to assess whether their daily activities were limited a lot or a little by such a health problem, or whether their daily activities were not limited at all.

Religion

This is a person's current religion, or if the person does not have a religion, 'No religion'. No determination is made about whether a person was a practicing member of a religion. Unlike other census questions where missing answers are imputed, this question was voluntary and where no answer was provided, the response is categorised as 'Not stated'.

Sex

The classification of a person as either male or female.

Dataset population: Persons

Long-term health problem or disability

A long-term health problem or disability that limits a person's day-to-day activities and has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 months. This includes problems that are related to old age.

People were asked to assess whether their daily activities were limited a lot or a little by such a health problem, or whether their daily activities were not limited at all.