Metric permalink
Energy bill affordability pressure
Part of the Living Standards domain. Share of adults who pay energy bills and find them very or somewhat difficult to afford, capturing acute cost-of-living stress beyond income measures.
Latest data
Latest reading
Jan to Mar 2026
A higher reading is treated as worse for this indicator.
Score composition
Stress score
Blended from three components: (60% weight), trend (30% weight) and volatility (10% weight). Full formula on the methodology page.
Level · 60% weight
Bounds: scored against fixed best/worst limits, used until a metric has about eight years of verified data to rank against.
Trend · 30% weight
Measured from the direction and size of the change between the two most recent readings.
Volatility · 10% weight
50Provisional: fewer than four historical readings are available, so this defaults to a mid range score rather than a measured figure.
Data confidence and provenance
Confidence and source
How much weight to put on the reading, the mean data-confidence across the component metrics (source quality, recency and completeness).
Source
Opinions and Lifestyle Survey
- Update frequency
- Periodic
- Reliability
- medium
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS (Opinions and Lifestyle Survey)
- Series ID
- energy bills affordability
- Frequency
- periodic
- Accessed
- 7 July 2026
Known weakness
ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey is a small quota sample; the energy-bills affordability question is the available proxy: no combined food-and-energy affordability rate is published: and fieldwork is periodic.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (Opinions and Lifestyle Survey) (energy bills affordability), accessed 2026-07-07.
Historical values
History
| Period | Value | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 36 | |
| Mar 2026 | 35 |