Ipsos Issues Index: February 2020
The NHS replaces Brexit as the biggest issue facing Britain. Concern about Brexit falls to its lowest in three years, while worry for the environment reaches its' highest level since 1990.
The February 2020 Ipsos Issues Index shows a further decline in public concern about Britain’s exit from the EU. Just under four in ten mentioned it as a big issue (39%), a decline of eight percentage points since January. Concern has fallen by 26 percentage points since September 2019.
Public concern about the NHS held steady with 44 per cent seeing it as a big concern for Britain, meaning it became the biggest issue facing Britain for only the second time since February 2018.
There has been a slight increase in the proportion of people who mention the environment, pollution and climate change as a big issue; 25 per cent saw this as a concern, up from 23 per cent in January. One in ten said concerns on this topic were the single biggest concern for the country.
There was a decline of four percentage points in the proportion who said they were concerned about immigration (from 16% to 12%). Worry about the economy rose by the same amount, from 13 per cent to 17 per cent of all Britons.
Fieldwork was conducted from 7 – 23 February, before the emergence of the coronavirus as a major new story. Just five per cent mentioned pandemic flu as a major issue for Britain, although in January less than one half of a per cent mentioned it.
Environmental concern has been rising over the past few years, reaching a level last recorded in the early nineties. However, not all groups are evenly concerned:
- The level of concern among those in social grades ABC1 (33%) was double that found among C2DE groups (16%).
- Concern was similar among all participants between the ages of 18 and 54, with the highest level of worry among those aged 25-34. Just 11 per cent of the over 65s mention it as a worry
Mike Clemence, researcher at Ipsos, said:
- Conducted before the coronavirus outbreak became major news, the February Issues Index shows public concern about Brexit continuing a steep decline, which started a few months before the 2019 General Election. By contrast public concern about the NHS has remained static, making it the nation’s biggest concern for February.
- The environment continues to rise as a worry – one in ten Britons mention pollution and climate change as the single biggest concern for the country.
- With fieldwork in early February, just five per cent of the public mentioned pandemic diseases as a big concern. We will monitor how far this expands in next month’s index.
Technical note
- Ipsos's Issues Index is conducted monthly and provides an overview of the key issues concerning the country. Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,005 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. The answers are spontaneous responses, and participants are not prompted with any answers.
- Ipsos's Capibus vehicle was used for this survey. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in-home between 7 and 23 February 2020 at 181 sampling points across Great Britain. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.