Community Life Survey 2024/25: Headline findings
Updated 10 December 2025
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-life-survey-202425-annual-publication/community-life-survey-202425-headline-findings
This section summarises the key findings from the annual 2024/25 Community Life Survey. More detail can be found in the 2024/25 main report chapters covering loneliness and support networks, neighbourhood and community, civic engagement and social action, and volunteering and charitable giving, and in the 2024/25 data tables.
Background
Released: 10 December 2025
Geographical Coverage: England
The Community Life Survey is a nationally representative annual survey of adults (16+) in England that tracks the latest trends and developments across areas related to encouraging social action and empowering communities. This release provides estimates reported during the period of October 2024 to March 2025 (2024/25).
Headline findings
Loneliness and Support Networks
In 2024/25:
7% of adults reported that they felt lonely often or always, a small, but significant, decrease from 2023/24 (from 7.1% in 2023/24 to 6.6% in 2024/25).
Levels of loneliness were broadly stable from 2013/14, when push-to-web data collection first commenced on Community Life Survey, up to 2021/22 (5-6%). Levels in 2024/25 (6.6%) were higher than in the years 2013/14 to 2017/18 (4.9-5.6%).
9% of adults reported high levels of indirect loneliness, a small, but significant, decrease from 2023/24 (10%).
Rates of indirect loneliness in 2024/25 are in line with levels recorded in 2020/21 (9%) when this measure was introduced into the survey. Indirect loneliness is measured via combining responses to three survey questions (frequency of feeling that you lack companionship, feel left out and feel isolated from others).
Neighbourhood and community
In 2024/25:
62% of adults felt they belonged ‘very strongly’ or ‘fairly strongly’ to their immediate neighbourhood, a 1 percentage point increase from 2023/24 (61%).
Levels of belonging to the immediate neighbourhood in 2024/25 were higher than those reported in 2023/24 (61%) and between 2013/14 to 2015/16 (58-60%), though lower than levels reported in 2020/21 (65%).
40% of adults agreed that many of the people in their neighbourhood can be trusted, no significant change from 2023/24 (41%).
Levels of trust have remained broadly consistent since 2016/17 (40% to 42%) but have decreased from rates in 2013/14 (48%) when push-to-web data collection commenced.
81% of adults agreed that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get along well together, a small, but significant, decrease from 2023/24 (from 81.4% in 2023/24 to 80.6% in 2024/25).
Levels on this measure have ranged from a high of 84% in 2021/22 to a low of 80% in 2016/17. Levels in 2024/25 were lower than in the years 2020/21 to 2023/4 (81-84%), 2017/18 (82%) and 2013/14 (83%), although some of these differences were small.
73% of adults were satisfied with their local area as a place to live, no significant change from 2023/24 (74%).
Levels of satisfaction with the local area in 2023/24 and 2024/25 were lower than in all previous survey years from 2013/14 (when push-to-web data collection commenced on Community Life Survey) to 2021/22 (between 76% and 80%).
11% of adults reported that over the last two years their local area had gotten better to live in, no significant change from 2023/24 (11%).
The proportion of respondents reporting that over the last two years their area has got better to live in was lower in 2023/24 and 2024/25 than in the previous survey years from 2014/15 to 2021/22 (between 13% and 16%).
60% of adults agreed that they were proud to live in their local area, no significant change from 2023/24 (59%) when this measure was first introduced into the survey.
58% of adults considered their local area to be either very or fairly attractive, no significant change from 2023/24 (57%) when this measure was first introduced into the survey.
75% of adults reported that they were satisfied with the green and natural spaces in their local area, no significant change from 2023/24 (76%) when this measure was first introduced into the survey.
Volunteering and Charitable Giving
In 2024/25:
17% of adults had participated in formal volunteering at least once a month in the last 12 months, no significant change from 2023/24 (16%).
Rates of participation in formal volunteering at least once a month have declined since push-to-web data began in 2013/14 when rates were 27%. This includes a notable decrease between rates in 2019/20 (23%) and 2020/21 (17%) when rates may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated restrictions and guidance introduced in the UK.
24% of adults had participated in informal volunteering (defined as giving unpaid help to individuals who are not a relative) at least once a month, no significant change from 2023/24 (24%).
Levels of informal volunteering at least once a month in 2023/24 and 2024/25 were lower than in all previous survey years from 2013/14 (when push-to-web data collection commenced on Community Life Survey) to 2021/22 (between 26% and 33%).
67% of adults said they had given money to charitable causes in the last four weeks, no significant change from 2023/24 (67%).
Rates of charitable giving have generally been in decline since push-to-web data collection started on the Community Life Survey, from a high of 82% in 2013/14 to a low of 63% in 2020/21. Rates from 2021/22 to 2024/25 have been stable between 66% and 67%.
Civic engagement and social action
In 2024/25:
34% of adults had engaged in some form of civic participation at least once in the last 12 months, no significant change from 2023/24 (33%).
This is in line with levels of civic participation in 2021/22 (34%), but a decrease from levels in 2019/20 (41%) and 2020/21 (42%). Civic participation is defined in the survey as engagement in democratic processes, both in person and online, including contacting a local official (such as a local councillor or MP), signing a petition, or attending a public rally, excluding voting.
24% of adults agreed they can personally influence decisions affecting their local area, no significant change from 2023/24 (23%).
Levels of agreement in 2023/24 and 2024/25 were lower than in all previous survey years from 2013/14 (when push-to-web data collection commenced on Community Life Survey) to 2021/22 (between 25% and 28%).
13% of adults reported being involved in social action at least once in the last 12 months, no significant change from 2023/24 (13%).
Prior to 2023/24 rates of social action had generally been decreasing, from a high of 19% in 2013/14 when push-to-web data collection commenced on the Community Life Survey, to a low of 12% in 2021/22. Rates in 2023/24 and 2024/25 were lower than for all other survey years (14-19%), with the exception of rates in 2021/22 (12%).