New research conducted by us in collaboration with Old Salt has revealed what the UK public think about life in lockdown during Covid-19.

We wanted to know what the UK public really thinks about Covid-19 and their time in isolation - from how they’re spending their days to their thoughts on the government’s decisions and what might happen to divorce and birth rates.

Key findings from the study, which was completed by 1003 adults in the UK, has shown that respondents believe lockdown will go on until 19th July, meaning that stay at home measures will last a total of just over 16 weeks.

Contrary to popular belief it’s not just TV getting people through isolation - supermarkets (30%), SVOD (24%) and social media (17%) are helping people to cope with Tesco, Netflix and Facebook being the nation’s hero brands.

72% of respondents think that with the exception of key workers, people are following the government’s advice to stay at home and 69% think that the government is doing everything it can to reduce the impact of coronavirus around the UK.

The reaction to the lockdown has been positive, with 83% of respondents believing that lockdown will improve the situation around coronavirus.

Similarly, time away has given people time to think - with 71% agreeing it’s more important than ever to look after the environment and 64% reporting that they’re thinking more about their food choices than they used to.

But it’s not all good news, not least for the men of the UK - as results show that 76% of women think the divorce rate will rise once social distancing and self-isolation measures are removed, compared to only 64% of men.

Similarly despite the preventative steps that have been taken by the government 49% of adults are feeling worried most or all of the time, with that figure rising to 58% among 25-34 year olds.

However regardless of these tough times, respondents have reported surprising upsides to the lockdown from revitalising the garden to re-kindling romances, as one 65 year from the South East told us, 'Now that my wife is home more, surprisingly we are getting along brilliantly and are becoming closer as the days go by'.

This study has yielded some fascinating insights and was the first in an ongoing project to discover the opinions of the public around life in lockdown as the situation continues to change and develop.

Other key findings:

• 77% think the birth rate will spike once social distancing and self-isolation measures are removed
• 66% of 25-34s say they’ve struggled to get hold of food or household goods in the last week (vs. 56% all adults)
• 35% have either started video calling loved ones or are video calling more often, leaving
• 65% who either aren’t video calling at all / more than they used to

All findings came from 1003 adults representative of the UK’s online population completed an online survey between April 2nd and April 3rd 2020.

Get in touch

For more information, questions or comments please contact Hannah McCreesh, Marketing Manager at Omnisis on hannah@omnisis.co.uk and Syann Cox, Founder and Director at Old Salt on syann@oldsalt.uk