Attitudes to inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic

Perceptions of the extent and causes of inequalities are vitally important to the functioning of societies, economies and politics. If the public thinks that inequalities are large – and, crucially, that they are unfair – this can undermine faith in political and economic systems as a whole.

The Policy Institute therefore looked at Britons' views on these issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the three nations in Britain were coming in and out of a second wave of lockdowns, in the midst of increasing media coverage of the unequal impacts of the pandemic and related restrictions.

The research was conducted by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, in collaboration with the UK in a Changing Europe, to inform the Institute for Fiscal Studies Deaton Review of Inequalities.