NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey Phases 1 to 6 Results

The fourth set of results from the NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) survey were published today by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency. These results are based on 6,357 interviews with members of the public carried out in the period 21 April to 7 November 2020.

Key findings

• In October, more than three quarters of people interviewed (76%) said that they were worried about the effect the Coronavirus (COVID-19) was having on their lives. This was an increase following the June to September period, when this proportion was in the range (68%-70%) and it was a return to the levels of worry reported in the months of April (75%) and May (77%).
• Just under a half of people (49%) thought it would be more than a year before life returns to normal. A further 8% said that life would never return to normal. The proportion of people who said it would be more than a year before life returned to normal has increased from 21% in April to 56% in October.
• Just over half of people (55%) said they would be comfortable attending Accident and Emergency (A&E) if they had an urgent health problem but 34% stated they would feel uncomfortable about having to do so.
• The average (mean) wellbeing rating of people interviewed in the period April-November 2020 for ‘life satisfaction’ (7.57) and feelings that things done in life are ‘worthwhile’ (7.92) were significantly lower (in a statistical sense) than those reported by NISRA for the 2019/20 year (7.86) and (8.05) respectively.
• In the period August–November 2020, just over two-fifths of people (41%) said that they had downloaded the StopCOVIDNI App at the time of interview.
• One in two people (50%) interviewed in the period August-November 2020 reported having family or friends visit them at home in the seven days prior to interview.
• The use of face coverings outside the home has increased significantly from 28% in June to 94% in October.
• People interviewed in the period September-November 2020 were asked about the enforcement of rules to help slow the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). One in five people (20%) thought that police were strict in enforcing rules to help reduce the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) but half of people (50%) thought they were lenient.

Each chart in the report is also supported by an excel spreadsheet which provides confidence intervals for each estimate. Additional tables for other variables asked in Phases 1-6 have been also been published in this release, where validated data is of a sufficient quality to release. A visual representation of these findings can also be found on the NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey webpage.

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