Community Life Survey 2020/21
This report summarises the results from the 2020/21 survey, which ran from April 2020 to March 2021.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
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:
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Most adults (95%) agreed that if they needed help there are people who would be there for them.
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66% of respondents met up in person with friends or family at least once a week, a significant decrease from 2019/20 (74%).
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The proportion of adults reporting they felt lonely often/always remained similar to 2019/20 at 6%.
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Measures for life satisfaction, happiness and self-worth have decreased from 2019/20.
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79% of respondents agree that they were satisfied with their local area as a place to live, an increase from 2019/20 (76%).
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65% of respondents agreed that people in their neighbourhood pull together to improve their neighbourhood; this was higher than in 2019/20 (59%).
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41% of respondents have taken part in civic participation, 19% in civic consultation, and 7% in civic activism.
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27% of respondents agreed that they could personally influence decisions in their local areas.
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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.
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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.
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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
3. Neighbourhood and Community
4. Civic Engagement and Social Action
5. Volunteering and Charitable Giving
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 2014/15 and 2015/16 survey had a smaller overall sample size than other years reported in this report so figures for these years may be less reliable.
- Small sample sizes for some demographic characteristics (such as some ethnic minority groups) presented in this report mean we are less able to detect significant differences between groups.
- All results summarised in this report are from the ‘push to web’ methodology. Respondents can choose to complete the survey online or use a paper questionnaire. Not all questions are included in the paper version of the questionnaire.
- 95% confidence intervals have been used throughout the report. For further explanation and for definitions of terms please refer to Annex A.
- 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.
- Further information on this approach is provided in Annex A.
- The Community Life Survey fieldwork period ran from April 2020 to March 2021. We anticipate that the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, and the associated restrictions and guidance introduced in the UK, have affected our estimates. However we can not be definitive that changes from the 2019/20 to 2020/21 can be fully attributed to COVID-19. In December 2020, DCMS published ‘Community Life COVID-19 Re-contact Survey 2020- Main Report’. This report covered public beliefs and behaviours relating to social cohesion, charitable giving, volunteering, wellbeing and loneliness for adults in England during March to July 2020, and how these have changed compared with a period before the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The Community Life Survey Technical Report will be released at a later date.
Updates to this page
Last updated 1 July 2022 + show all updates
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Added PDF version of technical report.
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Added the Technical report.
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First published.