The economy was seen by 50 percent of people in the UK as one of the top three issues facing the country in March 2026, with immigration seen as the top issue by 49 percent of people. Health was the next most important issue that month, selected by 32 percent of people. These three issues have consistently been identified as the most important for voters for the majority of this time period, with defence and security seen as the fourth-most important issue this month. Who do voters think will handle these issues best? As of 2025, the Conservatives were seen as the best party for handling the economy by 21 percent of UK voters, the largest share for this particular issue. Reform was the leading party for the issue of immigration and integration, while Labour was ahead when it came to handling the National Health Service (NHS). In general, voters were quite split on which party would handle issues the best, with many respondents saying they weren't sure who would handle specific problems better than others. Labour's popularity in freefall Since winning the 2024 general election, the Labour government's popularity has fallen significantly. By the end of 2024, the new government was as disliked as the previous one, and by late 2025, their approval rating was almost as bad as that of the Liz Truss government of 2022. Labour's position in election polls has also deteriorated. After starting 2025 just behind Labour, the populist, right-wing Reform party finished the year leading the polls. Labour has also had to contend with a nascent Green Party, which, after electing a new leader in September 2025, has become steadily more popular, particularly in London and among younger voters.

A 2024 survey found that over half of individuals in Great Britain indicated that access to treatment and long waiting times were the biggest problem facing the national healthcare system. Access to treatment and/or long waiting times were also considered to be pressing issues. This statistic reveals the share of individuals who said select problems were the biggest facing the health care system in Great Britain in 2024.

As of January 2026, the economy was seen as the most important issue facing the UK according to young voters (aged between 18 and 24). Although immigration was the most important issue for the overall population, it was the joint-third most important issue for this age group.

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.

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.

To collect data on the problem of communication within a particular hospital in order to find, apply and test some possible solutions. Respondents were maternity patients.

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.

This report presents findings from the third (wave 3) in a series of follow up reports to the 2017 Mental Health of Children and Young People (MHCYP) survey, conducted in 2022. The sample includes 2,866 of the children and young people who took part in the MHCYP 2017 survey. The mental health of children and young people aged 7 to 24 years living in England in 2022 is examined, as well as their household circumstances, and their experiences of education, employment and services and of life in their families and communities. Comparisons are made with 2017, 2020 (wave 1) and 2021 (wave 2), where possible, to monitor changes over time.

ICD-10 permits the systematic analysis, interpretation and comparison of morbidity data collected in different areas. The specified purpose of ICD-10 is to provide a means of classifying diagnoses and is defined as a system of categories to which morbid entries are assigned according to established criteria.

About this change

This release introduces the 5th edition of ICD-10. It contains updates released by WHO but not yet implemented in the UK.

This update to the standard is a continuance of the regular review and uplift to ICD-10 in line with the recommended best practice of keeping clinical classifications aligned with advances in health care.

This statistic displays the leading household problems for which adults in the United Kingdom (UK) are likely to hire a professional to fix as of 2017. Among those surveyed, around ** percent said they would turn to a professional in case of having a damaged roof.

This statistic displays the result of a survey where eHealth professionals from the United Kingdom (UK) were asked to evaluate the main eHealth challenges for healthcare providers in 2021. In this year, ** percent of respondents in the UK mentioned that receiving funding is the biggest challenge for healthcare providers, while challenge in hiring sufficiently skilled employees received ** percent of responses.

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.

Ethnic group

Ethnic group classifies people according to their own perceived ethnic group and cultural background.

This topic contains ethnic group write-in responses without reference to the five broad ethnic group categories, e.g. all Irish people, irrespective of whether they are White, Mixed/multiple ethnic groups, Asian/Asian British, Black/African/Caribbean/Black British or Other ethnic group, are in the Irish response category. This topic was created as part of the commissioned table processing.

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.

Sex

The classification of a person as either male or female.

Households that have liquidity problems and solvency problems only

Results by equity.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in England and Wales by long-term health problems or disabilities, sex, age and level of deprivation. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021. Age-standardisation allows for comparisons between populations that may contain proportions of different ages.

This dataset provides Census 2022 estimates for long-term health problem or disability situation for all people in Scotland.

Long-term health problem or disability

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

Long-term illness is a strong predictor for higher use of health service resources. This information is used by central government for resource allocation and by local government for service provision. It enables public bodies to meet statutory requirements and to develop and monitor policies to allocate health funding and services at a national and local level.

Details of classification can be found here

The quality assurance report can be found here

Dataset population: Persons in households

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.

General health

General health is a self-assessment of a person's general state of health. People were asked to assess whether their health was very good, good, fair, bad or very bad.

For England and Wales, this assessment is not based on a person's health over any specified period of time.

For Northern Ireland, 'General health' refers to a person's health over the 12 months prior to Census day (27 March 2011).

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.

Sex

The classification of a person as either male or female.

BackgroundIn the late 1950s and early 1960s the drug Thalidomide was marketed across the world as a non-addictive tranquilizer. Despite being given to pregnant women as a safe treatment for morning sickness, Thalidomide caused serious damage to the unborn child. Much has been written about the drug and the birth defects it caused but evidence about the health of Thalidomide survivors as they age is limited.AimThe aim of this study was to: explore the health and wellbeing UK Thalidomide survivors; document the health problems experienced by them as they reach their mid-50s; and examine the impacts on their health-related quality of life and employment.MethodsA health and wellbeing survey of 351 UK Thalidomide survivors, which gathered information about home and employment circumstances, recent health problems, and health related quality of life (using SF12 Health Survey). Overall analysis focused on descriptive statistics; the association between respondents’ health related quality of life and original impairment was examined using Pearson Correlation; and a three step Hierarchical Regression was used to explore the influence of five factors which narrative responses suggested might be important.ResultsAs Thalidomide survivors reach their mid-50’s they are experiencing a wide range of secondary health problems, in particular musculoskeletal problems, and depression and anxiety, with multimorbidity a growing issue. These health problems are having a negative impact on their employment (two fifths are unable to work) and their physical health related quality of life, which is significantly poorer than the general population.DiscussionHaving lived relatively independent lives, many Thalidomide survivors are now having to adjust to growing disability. The study provides further evidence of the accumulative impact of disability over peoples’ lifetimes and highlights the value of a life course perspective in understanding the complex experience of growing older with a disability.

A List of UK Health Workers Who Have Died from COVID-19

Made machine-readable by hand from data from the UK newspaper "The Guardian", in this article: "Doctors, nurses, porters, volunteers: the UK health workers who have died from Covid-19" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/doctors-nurses-porters-volunteers-the-uk-health-workers-who-have-died-from-covid-19

The Guardian is continuing to update the list day-by-day, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. I do not plan to update this dataset, assuming, since the data collection biases are unknown, that nobody else will find it very interesting. I am not a copyright lawyer and do not know if this data is protected copyright, and if so, in which parts of the world.

Caveat: Creating this dataset from a newspaper article required a lot of hand work. I've done my best, but there may be mistakes.

Columns: Name age institution city: I have filled this in myself; I am ignorant of UK geography and there may well be mistakes date_of_death possible_ppe_issue: mostly blank, but I have filled in "yes" where the article mentions a person who had doubts about the adequacy of PPE (personal protective equipment) MED_SPEC: I have attempted to fill in a medical specialty from the values used on the Eurostat web site for Physicians by Medical Specialty" and "Nursing and caring professionals" tables. The idea is to be able to calculate a fraction of affected individuals by specialty.