Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2025 (BSA)

Introduction

In 2025, 26% of British adults were satisfied with how the NHS runs – a statistically significant 6 percentage point increase from 2024, and the first increase in satisfaction since 2019. 2025 also saw the largest fall in dissatisfaction in 25 years, falling from 59% in 2024 to 51%.

The British Social Attitudes survey offers a unique look at how the British public are feeling about their health service. Carried out every year since 1983 by the National Centre for Social Research, it provides a barometer for understanding not only how people feel the NHS runs nowadays, but also what is driving their satisfaction (or, rather more accurately in recent years, dissatisfaction); how they rate individual services; and what they make of social care.

The 2025 survey was carried out between 26 August and 6 October 2025. The results this year appear to show the year-on-year falls in satisfaction seen since the pandemic have eased, yet the results do not offer a clear indication of why the public are more satisfied, nor if this is a true turning point in the public’s views.

Overall satisfaction has improved, but remains low

In 2025, 26% of British adults were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ satisfied with the way in which the NHS runs – a statistically significant 6 percentage point increase from 2024.

Around half of respondents (51%) were dissatisfied with the NHS in 2025, a statistically significant fall of 8 percentage points compared to 2024 when it was 59%.

This is the first increase in satisfaction since 2019, and the largest fall in dissatisfaction in more than 25 years.

Satisfaction with individual NHS services and waiting times for NHS care remain low, but there have been no significant changes between 2024 and 2025.

Improvements in satisfaction have not been equally felt across all groups 

Satisfaction was low across all population groups, but a significantly higher proportion of people ages 65 and over (35%) were satisfied.  

People under 35 (20%), supporters of Reform (20%) and people in Wales (18%) were significantly less satisfied with the NHS than the survey average. 

Support for the founding principles of the NHS remains high 

As in previous years, a large majority of respondents agreed that the founding principles of the NHS should ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ apply in 2025: that the NHS should be free of charge when you need to use it (89%), the NHS should primarily be funded through taxes (81%) and the NHS should be available to everyone (74%). 

While there has been no statistically significant change since 2024 in these percentages there has been a year-on-year decrease in the proportion who think these principles should ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ apply since the questions were first asked in 2021. The greatest decrease over time has been support for the principle that ‘the NHS should be available to everyone’. 

Support for the principle that the NHS should be available to everyone varied significantly by supporters of different political parties, with 68% of Labour supporters agreeing this principle should ‘definitely’ apply compared to 45% of Conservative supporters and 30% of Reform supporters.

When asked about government choices on tax and spending on the NHS, the public remains closely divided between raising taxes and spending more on the NHS (45%) and keeping taxation and spending at the same level (43%). Only 8% would choose to cut taxes and spend less on the NHS. 

Despite the increase in satisfaction, people are not optimistic about the future 

Despite the increase in satisfaction only 16% of all respondents thought the standard of NHS care would improve in the next 5 years compared to 53% who said they expected care to get worse. 

Among those who said they were satisfied with the NHS, 30% still said they expected NHS care to get worse or much worse, and 39% said it would stay about the same. 

And satisfaction with social care remains particularly low 

In 2025, 14% of respondents said they were satisfied with social care. 49% were dissatisfied with social care – a statistically significant decrease from 2024 when this figure was 53%. 

When asked about government choices on tax and spending on social care, 38% said the government should increase taxes and spend more on social care – this is much lower than support for increasing taxes and spending on the NHS, which was 45%.