Official Statistics

Community Life Survey 2023/24: Background and headline findings

Published 4 December 2024

Applies to England

This section provides the background to, and summarises the key findings from, the annual 2023/24 Community Life Survey.  More detail can be found in the 2023/24  main report chapters covering loneliness and support networks, neighbourhood and community, civic engagement and social action, and volunteering and charitable giving, and in the 2023/24 data tables.  

Background     

Released: 4 December 2024

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 that are key to encouraging social action and empowering communities. This release provides estimates reported during the period of October 2023 to March 2024 (2023/24). The format of the survey is push-to-web, with a paper version for those who are not able or wish not to complete this online. 

In 2023/24, DCMS partnered with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to boost the Community Life Survey to be able to produce meaningful estimates at Local Authority level. This has enabled us to have the most granular data we have ever had. The questionnaire for 2023/24 has been developed collaboratively to adapt to the needs and interests of both DCMS and MHCLG, and there were some new questions and changes to existing questions, response options and definitions in the 2023/24 survey. Where there has been a change, we have highlighted where a comparison with previous data can or cannot be made. Questionnaire changes can affect results, and therefore should be taken into consideration when interpreting the findings.

This release presents the headline estimates during October 2023 to March 2024, and demographic and geographical breakdowns ^{[footnote 1]}. Further estimates can be found in the accompanying data tables. Differences between groups are only reported on in this publication where they are statistically significant, that is, where we can be more confident that the differences seen in our sampled respondents reflect the total population. ^{[footnote 2]} Estimates for the final quarter of 2023/24 (January to March 2024) have also been published in a separate set of data tables.

In 2023/24 we collected data on the respondent’s sex and gender identity. Please note that patterns were identified in Census 2021 data that suggest that some respondents may not have interpreted the gender identity question as intended, notably those with lower levels of English language proficiency. Analysis of Scotland’s census, where the gender identity question was different, has added weight to this observation. More information can be found in the ONS sexual orientation and gender identity quality information report, and in the National Statistical blog about the strengths and limitations of gender identity statistics.

Comparisons of this year’s 2023/24 results are made against the results from previous years of the CLS, where available. It should be noted that fieldwork for 2020/21 and 2021/22 (particularly during the first quarter of the 2021/22 survey), took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear what effect the COVID-19 pandemic, associated lockdown measures and associated media coverage may have had on relevant public behaviours, attitudes and perceptions. This should be taken into consideration when interpreting comparisons from these years to results from 2023/24.

It should also be noted that the 2023/24 survey ran over two quarters, compared with four quarters in 2021/22. Analysis has therefore been carried out to assess the impact of any effects of seasonality on survey estimates and comparisons between years. Overall, the findings indicated that there were limited seasonality impacts (3 out of the 22 variables tested). Further details can be found in the accompanying 2023/24 technical report and are clearly cited in the 2023/24 release where applicable. 

Headline findings

Loneliness and support networks

During October 2023 to March 2024 (2023/24):

7% of adults (approximately 3.1 million people in England) reported that they felt lonely often or always.

This is a slight increase of one percentage point from 6% in 2021/22. ^{[footnote 3]}  Prior to 2023/24 this measure had remained broadly stable over time at between 5% and 6% since 2013/14 when push-to-web data collection commenced on the Community Life Survey.

1 in 10 of adults (10%) reported high levels of indirect loneliness (a score of 8 or 9).

This is a slight increase of one percentage point from 2021/22 (8%) ^{[footnote 2]}, but in line with levels in 2020/21 when this measure was introduced into the survey (9%).

94% of adults “definitely” or “tended” to agree that if they needed help there are people who would be there for them. 

This is a slight decrease of one percentage point since 2021/22 (95%). ^{[footnote 3]} There has been little change in this measure since the start of the push-to-web data collection (2013/14), with levels between 95% to 96%.

Neighbourhood and community

In 2023/24:

61% of adults felt they belonged ‘very strongly’ or ‘fairly strongly’ to their immediate neighbourhood, in line with levels in 2021/22 (63%). 

This measure has remained broadly stable since 2015/16 (60% to 63%), with lower levels of belonging reported in 2013/14 (58%) and 2014/15 (55%).

41% of adults agreed that many people in their neighbourhood can be trusted, in line with levels in 2021/22 (42%).  

Levels of trust have remained broadly stable 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 on well together.  

This represents a 3 percentage point decrease since 2021/22 (84%), but broadly in line with rates over the longer-term (between 80% and 83% since push-to-web data collection commenced in 2013/14).

 

74% of respondents were satisfied with their local area as a place to live.  

This represents a 2 percentage point decrease compared to 2021/22 (76%), and is now at the lowest level recorded since push-to-web data collection began for the survey in 2013/14. Up until 2023/24 this measure fluctuated between 76% and 80%.

 

11% of respondents reported that over the last two years their area has got better to live in.

  

This is lower than in 2021/22 (15%). In previous years of the survey levels for this measure have varied between 12% to 16%.  

For new questions in 2023/24:

59% reported that they are proud to live in their local area. The main reasons were cited as: it being safe (69%), green and natural spaces (63%) and friendly and respectful people (58%). 

57% of adults considered their local area to be either very attractive (17%) or fairly attractive (40%), while 17% considered their local area to be somewhat or very unattractive.

76% of adults were either very satisfied (31%) or fairly satisfied (44%) with the green and natural spaces in the local area, while 9% were dissatisfied. 

Volunteering and charitable giving

In 2023/24:

16% of respondents had taken part in formal volunteering (defined as giving unpaid help to clubs, groups or organisations) at least once a month, in line with 2021/22 (16%).

Levels of formal volunteering at least once a month have declined since push-to-web data collection started on the Community Life Survey 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 taken part in informal volunteering (defined as giving unpaid help to individuals who are not a relative) at least once a month.

This represents a 2 percentage point decrease from levels in 2021/22 (26%) and continues a decline observed since 2020/21 when rates were the highest recorded by the Community Life Survey (33%) since push-to-web data collection began. Prior to 2020/21 rates had declined from 31% in 2013/14 to 26% in 2018/19.

 

67% of adults said they had given money to charitable causes in the last four weeks, in line with levels of giving in 2021/22 (66%).  

Rates of this charitable giving have generally been in decline since push-to-web data collection started on the Community Life Survey in 2013/14, when rates were 82%.

Civic engagement and social action

Overall, during October 2023 to March 2024 (2023/24):

33% of respondents said they had engaged in some form of civic participation (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) at least once in the last 12 months.

This is in line with levels of civic participation in 2021/22 (34%), but a decrease from levels in 2019/20 and 2020/21 (both 41%), when levels were at the highest recorded for the Community Life Survey since push-to-web data collection began.

 

8% of respondents said that they had engaged in civic activism (involvement in local community roles such as being a local councillor, school governor, volunteer special constable or magistrate, and involvement, either in person or online, in decision making groups in the local area) at least once in the last 12 months.

This is a slight increase from levels of civic activism in 2021/22 and 2020/21 (both 7%) ^{[footnote 3]}, but generally in line with levels in all years since 2016/17 (8%).

23% of adults agreed they can personally influence decisions affecting their local area.

This represents a four percentage point decrease from levels reported 2021/22 (27%), and the lowest level recorded by the Community Life Survey for this measure. Levels prior to 2021/22 had remained broadly stable since the Community Life Survey commenced push-to-web data collection in 2013/24.

13% of adults reported being involved in social action at least once in the last 12 months, a slight increase from levels reported in 2021/22 (12%).

Prior to 2023/24 rates of social action had generally been decreasing, from 19% in 2013/14 when push-to-web data collection commenced on the Community Life Survey. ^{[footnote 3]}

Annex 1

The Community Life Survey is commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). DCMS took on responsibility for publishing results from the Community Life survey (CLS) for 2016-17 onwards, after it was commissioned by the Cabinet Office in 2012.

The fieldwork for the 2023/24 Community Life Survey was conducted by Verian (formerly Kantar Public).

This release is based on self-completed questionnaires conducted either online or using paper questionnaires. The survey was completed between October 2023 to March 2024. The total sample size for this survey year was 176,876. Sample sizes for each breakdown can be found in the accompanying tables.

All households sampled were invited to complete the survey online with the option to request a paper questionnaire instead. A targeted sample was also sent up to two paper questionnaires in their first or second reminder letter to encourage responses from those at risk of digital exclusion. From October 2023 to March 2024, 157,881 people (89.3%) completed the survey online and 18,995 (10.7%) completed the paper version of the questionnaire. Due to space limitations in the paper questionnaire, not all questions from the online survey are included in the paper version and the source of each survey measure is therefore referenced in the accompanying tables. Please take this into consideration when interpreting the results.

The Community Life Survey represents a set of Official Statistics and as such has been produced to the professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Official Statistics undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs and are produced free from any political interference. Please see the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for more information.

Stringent quality assurance procedures have been adopted for this statistical release. All data and analysis had been checked and verified by at least two different members of the DCMS team and Verian to ensure the highest level of quality.

Changes over time and differences between groups are only reported on where they are statistically significant at the 95% level. Statistically significant differences have been determined in this report on the basis of non-overlapping confidence intervals. This means that we can be confident that the differences seen in our sampled respondents are reflective of the population. Specifically, the statistical tests used mean we can be confident that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 95 times out of 100 we would get similar findings. When sample sizes are smaller, we can be less confident in our estimates, so differences need to be greater to be considered statistically significant.

The upper and lower bounds presented in this report have been calculated using a 95% confidence interval. This means that had the sample been conducted 100 times, creating 100 confidence intervals, then 95 of these intervals would contain the true value. When the sample size is smaller, as is the case for certain groups and in certain years, the confidence intervals are wider as we can be less certain that the individuals in the sample are representative of the population. This means that it is more difficult to draw inferences from the results.

The data is weighted to ensure representativeness of the Community Life Survey sample. Detailed information on the weighting procedure can be found in the Technical Note.

The GSS has a policy of monitoring and reducing statistical survey burden to participants where possible, and the burden imposed should be proportionate to the benefits arising from the use of the statistics. As a producer of statistics, DCMS is transparent in its approach to monitoring and reducing the burden on those providing their information, and on those involved in collecting, recording and supplying data. The compliance cost of a survey is calculated by [Number of responses to the survey multiplied by the median time spent completing the survey (in minutes)]. The Community Life Survey had 176,876 respondents in October 2023 to April 2024, and the median survey completion time was 25 minutes 47 seconds, therefore the compliance cost for the survey this year was around 76,000 hours.

For more information about the Community Life Survey and to access other guidance documents and the questionnaire, see the Community Life Survey web pages.

1. Where possible in the 2023/24 reporting, demographic breakdowns are provided for age, sex, gender identity, disability status, socio-economic classification, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, Index of Multiple Deprivation and for ITL1 and Local Authority regions. We have reported findings based on a single demographic rather than the intersection of multiple demographics. It is therefore possible that similar trends are seen in multiple demographics, although we have not tested this hypothesis within the Community Life Survey data. ↩

2. The 95% confidence intervals are indicated by error bars on the charts. They show the range that we are 95% confident the true value for the population falls between. When there is no overlap between the error bars for two or more groups, we can be more confident that the differences between groups represent true differences between these groups in the population. ↩ ↩²

3. The 2023/24 CLS collects over 175,000 responses, so confidence intervals are generally very narrow. While this reflects a strength of the survey, some observed differences are small (e.g. one or two percentage points). These small differences could be due to residual sample bias. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴