Survey of Londoners

The second wave of a study designed to provide a robust, up-to-date and representative evidence base on key issues for Greater London Authority’s social integration and wider social policy agendas.

About the study

The Survey of Londoners is the second wave of a research study commissioned by the Mayor of London designed to provide a snapshot of Londoners’ lives after the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis.

Findings 

Financial hardship

• Sixteen per cent of adults in London had low or very low food security, equivalent to 1.2 million adults, a reduction since 2018-19 when it was 21 per cent (1.5 million adults). Lower-income Londoners were more likely to be food-insecure.
• Around one in seven (14 per cent) parents in London had children living in low or very low food security, not a statistically significant difference from 2018-19 when it was 17 per cent.

Labour market equality

• Ten per cent of working-age Londoners in work were in insecure employment, that is, being employed on a temporary contract, working through an employment agency or self-employed in low-skilled occupations (the same as in Survey of Londoners 2021-22: Headline findings 10 2018-19).
• Around one in nine (11 per cent) working Londoners said that they did not earn the LLW or more in their current main job.
• Around six in 10 (62 per cent) workers in London were satisfied with their current job.

Strong communities

• Most Londoners exhibited high levels of belonging to London, with 80 per cent saying they belong to the city. In comparison to 2018-19, there has been no significant change in feelings of belonging to London (81 per cent).
• Almost three quarters of Londoners (73 per cent) said they felt they belonged to their local area (unchanged from 2018-19).
• Almost half of Londoners borrowed things and exchanged favours with their neighbours (47 per cent), no significant change from 2018- 19 (45 per cent).

Mental health and wellbeing

• 60 per cent of Londoners reported high or very high satisfaction with their life nowadays (unchanged from 2018-19).
• Eight per cent of Londoners often or always felt lonely (unchanged from 2018-19).

Methodology

The Survey of Londoners is a web-first survey of 8,630 Londoners aged 16+ using a stratified random probability design. It was designed to encourage participants to complete the survey online, but offered paper self-completion surveys to all non-responding households to maximise response and sample quality.

Survey of Londoners 2021-22 - London Datastore