A nationally representative poll of over 10,000 British people has looked at the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on people’s lives and how people’s attitudes have changed. Demos researchers found that the nation is divided on their experiences and attitudes.

Overall, COVID-19 has had a net negative impact on a range of factors in people’s lives, from job security to mental health, but a substantial minority reported positive impacts on every topic. There were also some areas where people were more likely to report improvements to their lives: connection to their local community, to friends and family and – for parents – relationships with children.

Key findings:

• Over half of mask wearers in Britain (58%) have severely negative attitudes towards non-mask wearers.
• The vast majority (68%) of people who did not break lockdown rules have strong negative views about lockdown rule breakers.
• There is real concern about the increased prevalence of fake news, including around vaccines and online fraud – 54% of people think it has got worse, whilst 9% think it has improved.
• The pandemic is seen by parents as being a bad thing for their kids’ education (51%), whilst being a good thing for their relationship with their children (63%).
• People want greater flexibility regarding their place of work, with a balance between working from home and from an office or elsewhere. The proportion who would like to always work from home (19%) is higher than the proportion who did so before the pandemic (11%), but lower than have been doing so during it (25%).