[Cost of Living] Fuel Prices Revealed as Brits’ Biggest Concern Around the Rising Cost of Living

UK’s North/South Divide is Stark in New Study into the Nation’s Google Searches on the Cost of Living Crisis 

• Leeds, Birmingham, & Manchester are the UK Cities Most Likely to be Googling for Cost of Living Info or Help
• Fuel, Household Energy, & Food Related Queries are Amongst the Most Common Cost of Living Questions That Brits are Searching for Answers to

The UK’s North / South divide is stark when it comes to those searching on Google for information on – or solutions to – the rising cost of living, new research from digital marketing experts, Superb Digital, has revealed.

The research analysed search volume data from June 2022, across fifty cost of living related keywords and found fuel, household energy, and food related queries amongst the most common cost of living questions that Brits are searching for answers to.

Three of the highest searched keywords in June 2022 were related to fuel – showing a general concern with the soaring cost of petrol in the UK. When it comes to household energy, only “cheap water” and “energy discounts” were the phrases that saw 3 month growth – 52% and 25% respectively – indicating that household energy is a long-standing issue when it comes to consumers looking to save money. When it comes to food, searches for “grocery deals” were up 80% in 3 months, indicating inflation is really starting to bite in the weekly grocery shop.

Searches for “deals”, “save money”, and “discounts” all saw significant YoY change – 83%, 49%, and 22% respectively but the first two of these saw no growth in the last three months. This suggests that people have been increasingly feeling the pinch – possibly due to the financial fallout from Covid – for some time. New or emerging search terms in the UK include  “cost of living payment”, “cost of living crisis”, and “help with cost of living”.

When totalling search volumes across all keywords analysed, the top 10 UK cities most likely to be conducting searches related to the cost of living crisis were:

1. Leeds
2. Birmingham
3. Manchester
4. Derby
5. Glasgow
6. Nottingham
7. Bristol
8. Bradford
9. Edinburgh
10. Belfast

According to the data the North/South divide is prevalent, with Leeds was revealed as the UK city most likely to be searching for information on, or solutions to, the rising cost of living on Google.  The only Southern city to feature in the top 10 was Bristol, ranking in at position 7. Reading and London, were near the bottom of the list, with the Welsh cities of Cardiff and Swansea at the bottom of the list.

When it came to top cities by query topic, the results showed the following patterns:

Paul Morris, managing director at Superb Digital, commented:

“We use search volume data to provide insight to our digital marketing clients, so with this methodology in mind we analysed search volume data from June 2022 to discover which areas of the UK are most likely to be conducting searches relating to the rising cost of living. Our research reveals a nation increasingly concerned about the cost of living – specifically over rising fuel costs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it also shows a clear North / South divide when it comes to where these concerns are most concentrated.”

“Household energy, food, and fuel related queries are amongst the most common cost of living questions that Brits are searching for answers to, with residents in Leeds, Birmingham, and Manchester most likely to be heading to Google on these topics.”

For more information on the full research, visit: https://superb.digital/research/cost-of-living-in-the-uk-search-trend-data-by-topic/