Background

Released: 29 July 2021

Geographic Coverage: England

This release provides estimates on a number of measures covering social cohesion, community engagement and social action over the period of April 2020 to March 2021. The survey ran over the course of a year, recording respondents’ answers consistently over the year during different periods of lockdown measures. It is therefore likely that COVID-19 pandemic impacted respondent’s behaviours and responses, although we can not state that any change is caused purely because of this.

The Community Life Survey is a nationally representative annual survey of adults (16+) in England that aims to track the latest trends and developments across areas that are key to encouraging social action and empowering communities.

The survey moved from a face-to-face mode to an online (with paper mode for those who are not digitally engaged) in 2016/17. The results included in the release are based on online/paper completes only, covering the eight years from 2013/14, when this method was first tested, to 2020/21.

Differences between groups are only reported on in this publication where they are statistically significant i.e. where we can be confident that the differences seen in our sampled respondents reflect the population.

Responsible statistician: Aleister Skinner

Statistical enquiries: evidence@dcms.gov.uk, @DCMSInsight

Headline Estimates

Estimates from the 2020/21 Community Life Survey show that among adults (16+) in England:

• Most adults (95%) agreed that if they needed help there are people who would be there for them.

• 66% of respondents met up in person with friends or family at least once a week, a significant decrease from 2019/20 (74%).

• The proportion of adults reporting they felt lonely often/always remained similar to 2019/20 at 6%.

• Measures for life satisfaction, happiness and self-worth have decreased from 2019/20.

• 79% of respondents agree that they were satisfied with their local area as a place to live, an increase from 2019/20 (76%).

• 65% of respondents agreed that people in their neighbourhood pull together to improve their neighbourhood; this was higher than in 2019/20 (59%).

• 41% of respondents have taken part in civic participation, 19% in civic consultation, and 7% in civic activism.

• 27% of respondents agreed that they could personally influence decisions in their local areas.

• There was a decrease in the proportion of people giving to charitable causes. 63% of respondents reported having given to charitable causes in the last 4 weeks (at the time of responding to the survey). This was lower than in 2019/20 where 75% of respondents reported doing so and the lowest since the Community Life Survey began in 2013/14.

• There was a decrease in the proportion of people formally volunteering. 17% of respondents reported formally volunteering at least once a month, the lowest recorded participation rate since data collection in the Community Life Survey.

• There was an increase in the proportion of people informally volunteering. 33% of respondents had volunteered informally at least once a month, the highest percentage on record in the Community Life Survey.

Chapters

1. Identity and Social Network

2. Wellbeing and Loneliness

3. Neighbourhood and Community

4. Civic Engagement and Social Action

5. Volunteering and Charitable Giving

6. Annexes

Notes

• There are likely to be interactions between different demographics reported in this publication. For example, ethnic groups have different age and regional profiles. This report considers each demographic characteristic individually, so differences cited here cannot necessarily be attributed directly to the characteristic being described.
• The

The table below lists links to ad hoc statistical analyses on the Community Life Survey that have not been included in our standard publications.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/690cd9c3f5db1b22dad3e6cc/Community_Life_Survey_-_Estimates_on_Volunteering_trends_in_England.ods">Community Life Survey: Estimates on volunteering trends in England, 2013/14 to 2023/24 (ODS, 25.1 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ae2b74e270ceae39f9e1c0/Community_Life_Survey_-_reasons_for_pride_in_local_area_2023_24.ods">Community Life Survey: Reasons for pride/lack of pride in local area by age group, 2023/24 (ODS, 15.1 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64771a925f7bb700127fa20c/Community_Life_Survey_-_Influencing_local_decisions.ods">Community Life Survey: Feeling able to influence decisions affecting the local area by citizenship and household income, 2019/20 to 2021/22 (ODS, 10.9 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6436be8c877741000c68d874/Community_Life_Survey_-_Strength_of_community_variables_by_Output_Area_Classifications_2017_18_to_2020_21.ods">Community Life Survey: Strength of community variables by Output Area Classification, 2017/18 to 2020/21 (ODS, 111 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6423fb862fa8480013ec0e2c/Community_Life_Survey_-_Volunteering_in_the_Heritage_Sector.ods">Community Life Survey: Volunteering in the Heritage Sector, 2021/22 (ODS, 10.8 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62a9bd3e8fa8f50390d45147/CLS_ad_hoc_Volunteering_Final_220609_.ods">Community Life Survey: Further estimates on volunteering trends in England (ODS, 62.2 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/618cde40e90e070440c8b97e/CLS_Ad_hoc_-_member_of_public_-_Nov_2021.xlsx">Community Life Survey: Formal volunteering in groups, clubs or organisations, 2019/20 to 2020/21 (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 67.5 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/618cddd28fa8f50379269bef/ONS_ad_hoc_Nov_2021.xlsx">Community Life Survey: Feeling of being able to influence decisions that affect your local area, 2020/2021 (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 70.6 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d010983e5274a3cf94f84ea/Community_Life_Survey_further_estimates_of_levels_of_loneliness_in_London_and_England_2017-18.xlsx">Community Life Survey: Further estimates of levels of loneliness in London and England 2017-18 (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 83.3 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d010905e5274a3cfb11188d/Community_Life_Survey_Frequency_of_chatting_to_neighbours_2017-18.xlsx">Community Life Survey: Frequency of chatting to neighbours 2017-18</a

The Community Life Survey is a nationally representative annual survey of adults (16+) in England that tracks the latest trends and developments across areas that are key to encouraging social action and empowering communities. Data collection on the Community Life Survey commenced in 2012/13 using a face-to-face format. During the survey years from 2013/14 to 2015/16 a push-to-web format was tested, which included collecting online/paper data alongside the face-to-face data, before moving fully to a push-to-web format in 2016/17. The results included in this release are based on online/paper completes only, covering the ten survey years from 2013/14, when this method was first tested, to 2023/24.

Fieldwork for 2023/24 was delivered over two quarters (October to December 2023 and January to March 2024) due to an extended period earlier in 2023/24 to develop and implement the boosted design. As such there are two quarterly publications in 2023/24, in addition to the annual publication.

This release is the second and final quarterly publication from the 2023/24 Community Life Survey, providing estimates reported during the period of January to March 2024. The quarterly releases contain headline findings only and do not contain geographical or demographic breakdowns – this detail is published through the 2023/24 annual publication.

The pre-release access list above contains the ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release of Community Life Survey data. In line with best-practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours. Details on the pre-release access arrangements for this dataset are available in the accompanying material.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/the-code/">Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing evidence@dcms.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

The responsible analyst for this release is Rebecca Wyton. For enquiries on this release, contact <a h

Background

The Community Life Survey collects information about the way adults (16+) perceive their neighbourhood and community.

Headline Measures – 2020/21

• 37% of respondents (approximately 17 million people in England) agreed that they borrow from, and exchange favours with, their neighbours which was in line with 2019/20. This measure however was statistically significantly lower than in 2013/14, when data was first collected (42%, approximately 23 million people).

• 83% of respondents (approximately 38 million people in England) agreed that their area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together. This was in line with the 2019/20 figure.

• 79% of respondents (approximately 36 million people in England) were satisfied with their local area as a place to live, a statistically significant increase than in 2019/20 (76%).

• 65% of respondents (approximately 30 million people in England) felt they belonged to their neighbourhood. This was inline with the 2019/20 figure.

• 84% of respondents (approximately 38 million people in England) felt they belonged to Britain. This was inline with the 2019/20 figure.

• 65% of respondents (approximately 30 million people in England) agreed that people in their neighbourhood pull together to improve the neighbourhood. This is statistically significantly higher than in 2019/20 (59%) and the highest agreement recorded since the CLS began in 2013/14.

Further data

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/datasets/socialcapitalheadlineindicators">Social capital headline indicators, which presents data on subjects including the opinions of respondents about their neighbourhood

This is a monthly report on publicly funded community services for children, young people and adults using data from the Community Services Data Set (CSDS) reported in England. The CSDS is a patient-level dataset and has been developed to help achieve better outcomes for children, young people and adults. It provides data that will be used to commission services in a way that improves health, reduces inequalities, and supports service improvement and clinical quality. These services can include NHS Trusts, health centres, schools, mental health trusts, and local authorities. The data collected in CSDS includes personal and demographic information, diagnoses including long-term conditions and disabilities and care events plus screening activities. These statistics are classified as experimental and should be used with caution. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage. More information about experimental statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. We hope this information is helpful and would be grateful if you could spare a couple of minutes to complete a short customer satisfaction survey. Please use the survey in the related links to provide us with any feedback or suggestions for improving the report.