Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: November 2025

The following information is from data collected between 5 and 30 November 2025, based on adults in Great Britain.

• When asked about the important issues facing the UK today, the most commonly reported issues were the cost of living (88%), the NHS (82%), the economy (71%), immigration (64%), crime (61%), and housing (55%).

• Among the 87% of adults who planned to make Christmas purchases, 41% said they would buy gifts earlier and 41% said that they would reduce overall spending, to help spread the cost of purchases this year.

• Of those planning to make Christmas purchases, around 38% reported that they would spend more this Christmas when compared with last year; this figure increased to 55% for those aged 16 to 29 years.

• Of those planning to make Christmas purchases, nearly 4 in 10 (37%) said they were somewhat unconcerned or not at all concerned about affording Christmas, compared with 31% who said that they were very or somewhat concerned.

• The majority of adults (89%) had heard of cryptocurrencies; nearly half (45%) reported that they had heard of them but could not explain what they are, 34% said they could give a partial explanation, and 10% said they could explain them in detail. 

We have asked respondents what they thought were the important issues facing the UK today, since October 2022.

The cost of living (88%), the NHS (82%), and the economy (71%) continue to be the most frequently reported important issues in the latest period (5 to 30 November 2025).

The proportion of adults reporting the cost of living or the economy has increased when compared with a similar period a year ago (85% and 68%, respectively). Conversely, those reporting the NHS has decreased from 86% when compared with November 2024 but has remained relatively stable in recent months.

Other commonly reported issues during this time include immigration (64%), crime (61%), housing (55%), and climate change and the environment (51%).

Figure 1: The cost of living, the NHS and the economy have been the most commonly reported important issues facing the UK since October 2022

Proportion of adults reporting each important issue, Great Britain, October 2022 to November 2025

Notes:

1. Respondents could select more than one option.
2. The length of each data collection period presented in this time series may be different.

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This month, we asked adults in Great Britain what their spending plans were in the lead up to Christmas.

The majority of adults (87%) reported that they were planning to make purchases for Christmas. Of these, around 4 in 10 (38%) agreed or strongly agreed that they would spend more than last year. Around 3 in 10 (28%) disagreed or strongly disagreed, while a similar proportion (28%) neither agreed nor disagreed.

Adults aged 16 to 29 years were more likely to agree or strongly agree that they would spend more this Christmas than last year (55%). This is compared with 38% of those aged 30 to 49 years, 31% of those aged 50 to 69 years, and 34% of those aged 70 years and over.

Actions to help spread the cost of Christmas

Among those planning to make purchases, over 4 in 10 adults (41%) reported that they plan to buy gifts earlier to help spread the cost. The most likely group to report this was those aged 16 to 29 years (60%), compared with:

• 44% of those aged 30 to 49 years

• 35% of those aged 50 to 69 years

• 28% of those aged 70 years and over

Around 4 in 10 adults (41%) planned to reduce their overall spending for Christmas. Women (48%) were more likely than men (34%) to report this. Those aged 30 to 49 years (47%) were more likely to reduce overall spending than any other age group.

Other actions reported included using savings (25%) and using credit or payment plans (14%) to help spread the cost of Christmas purchases.

Among those planning to make purchases, we asked if respondents were spreading the cost of Christmas over more or fewer months than last year. A quarter (25%) reported that they planned to do so over a longer period this year. Those aged 16 to 29 years were more likely to report this (43%), compared with:  

• 25% of those aged 30 to 49 years

• 20% of those aged 50 to 69 years

• 13% of those aged 70 years and over

Women (29%) were also were more likely than men (21%) to report spreading the cost over more months.

Black Friday sales

Around 4 in 10 adults (42%) reported that they did not plan to buy anything in the Black Friday sales. Those aged 70 years and over (68%) were most likely to report this compared with younger age groups.

Around 1 in 10 (10%) adults planned to do more shopping during Black Friday sales compared with last year. The likelihood of reporting this decreased with age. This is broken down as follows:

• 19% of those aged 16 to 29 years

• 12% of those aged 30 to 49 years

• 5% of those aged 50 to 69 years

• 2% of those aged 70 years and over

Affordability this Christmas

We also asked adults who were planning to make purchases this Christmas how concerned or unconcerned they were about affording Christmas this year. Just under 4 in 10 (37%) adults reported feeling somewhat unconcerned or not at all concerned, while around 3 in 10 (31%) reported feeling very or somewhat concerned.

Younger adults (age groups under 50 years) were more likely to report feeling very or somewhat concerned about affording Christmas this year. This includes 35% of those aged 16 to 29 years and 38% of those aged 30 to 49 years. Women (38%) were also more likely to report feeling very or somewhat unconcerned about affording Christmas this year than men (24%).

Cryptocurrencies are a type of digital asset (explained on the Financial Conduct Authority's website). The most common examples are Bitcoin and Ethereum, with the value of Bitcoin reaching record highs in 2025.

We asked respondents if they had ever heard of cryptocurrencies. We also asked these questions over a similar period last year (6 November to 1 December 2024).

Most adults had heard of cryptocurrencies (89%):

• 10% reported that they had heard of them and could explain them in detail, compared with 7% last year

• 34% reported that they had heard of them and could give a partial explanation of what they are, compared with 42% last year

• 45% reported that they had heard of them but could not explain what they are, compared with 43% last year

• 11% of adults reported they had never heard of them, compared with 8% last year

Men were more likely to report they had heard of cryptocurrencies and could explain what they were in detail (16%) compared with women (4%).

Figure 5 shows younger adults (age groups under 50 years) were also more likely to report they had heard of cryptocurrencies and could explain what they were in detail:

• 13% of those aged 16 to 29 years

• 15% of those aged 30 to 49 years

• 7% of those aged 50 to 69 years

• 3% of those aged 70 years or over

When asked if they have ever bought or used, or if they currently hold, any cryptocurrencies, nearly 1 in 10 adults (8%) reported that they had, similar to the proportion that reported this last year (7%). This was higher among men (13%) than women (4%).

This was also higher among younger adults (age groups under 50 years), and lower among older adults (age groups 50 years and over):

• 9% of those aged 16 to 29 years

• 14% of those aged 30 to 49 years

• 5% of those aged 50 to 69 years

• 1% of those aged 70 years or over

Among those adults who had ever bought or used, or currently held, cryptocurrencies, around 1 in 7 (15%) reported that they had used cryptocurrencies to complete transactions, similar to last year (17%).

Estimates of cryptocurrencies knowledge and usage are available in our accompanying Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: cryptocurrency dataset.

Information on businesses' use and holding of cryptocurrency is available in our Business insights and impact on the UK economy release. When asked, during the period 17 to 30 November 2025, most businesses (96%) reported that they had not used, accepted or conducted any transactions involving cryptocurrencies in the last 12 months and 4% were unsure. Similarly, when asked if they held cryptocurrency as part of their assets, most businesses (97%) said they did not and 3% were unsure.

The Financial Conduct Authority's research note on cryptoassets provides more detail on the use and ownership of cryptocurrency. This research shows that awareness and ownership of cryptocurrencies in the UK had increased from 2020 to 2024.

The analysis in this bulletin is based on adults aged 16 years and over in Great Britain.

In the latest period, 5 to 30 November 2025, we sampled 8,690 households. This sample was randomly selected from people who had previously completed the Labour Market Survey (LMS) or Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN). The responding sample for the latest period contained 3,602 individuals, representing a 41% response rate.

Survey weights were applied to make estimates representative of the population, based on our population estimates. Estimates for some groups of the population may be subject to greater uncertainty because of smaller sample sizes for these groups (for example, younger adults).

From the 2 to 27 July 2025 data collection period onwards, the population totals used in weighting OPN estimates are based on 2022 mid-year estimates using updated population projections. For England and Wales, they are projected forward using scaling factors from 2021-based national population projections. For Scotland, they are projected forward using scaling factors from 2020-based national population projections.

For all estimates in the datasets, confidence intervals are provided. Where comparisons between estimates are made, associated confidence intervals should be used to assess the statistical significance of the differences. In some cases, additional statistical hypothesis testing was performed to identify differences between groups.

Further information on the survey design and quality can be found in our Opinions and Lifestyle Survey quality and methodology information (QMI).