Brits Look Forward to Christmas "More Than Ever" After Depressing Summer
Friday, 06 January 2012
- Wet summer leaves one in three (32 per cent) “depressed”
- Brits looking forward to “best Christmas ever” (27 per cent), despite the recession
Following a washout summer which left a third (32 per cent) of Brits feeling “depressed”, Brits are looking forward to Christmas “more than ever”, research carried out for car insurance providor swiftcover.com’s quarterly Life Index has shown.
27 per cent of Brits are looking forward to Christmas “more than ever”, following the poor summer. Although the majority of Brits (52 per cent) can’t wait for Christmas, not everyone is so keen: one in five (20 per cent) are wary of the financial pressures and 14 per cent don’t like the expectations of having to buy expensive presents for others.
Amanda Edwards, senior marketing manager at swiftcover.com, commented: “Economic doom and gloom combined with a washout summer to create a ‘perfect storm’ of misery for Brits, but it’s reassuring to hear that the anticipation of Christmas is also helping to boost the nation’s feel-good factor. Christmas is a key part of British culture, and we’re glad that it’s helping the country give focus and get through a tough time – with financial pressure not taking the gloss off of one of the most exciting times of the year.”
It seems that more women (29 per cent) than men (25 per cent) are looking forward to Christmas, and that those aged 45-54 are most cynical, with only 21 per cent looking forward to Christmas compared to 37 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds. Liverpudlians are the least festive – 13 per cent say they don’t celebrate Christmas, compared to just 2 per cent in Southampton.
However, a thought should go to the 2.6 million Brits who will be working over Christmas. Although we’re currently at a time when Brits feel more pressured than ever to work, less than one per cent will let work pressures take the shine off their Christmas.
How happy are we?
• When asked how happy people were in April 2011, half said (51 per cent) either quite or extremely happy. When asked again three months later, it had increased to two thirds (65 per cent), but has now fallen to 60 per cent.
• But how does this compare to last year? 22.8 per cent of those surveyed said they were happier than they were a year ago while 54 per cent said they felt the same.
• But is this the happiest time of our lives? Amazingly, 39 per cent say that they are currently the happiest they have ever been, up from 27 per cent in April. So what has changed?
What’s changed since April...
• Not much in real terms, although we are slightly happier overall. Income is still the thing that most Brits would like to change, and interestingly, men are still more likely to describe themselves as happy than women.
Bills
• Gas and electricity bills continue to trouble Brits, with 43 per cent citing them as their biggest concern, up from 39 per cent in July. Other bills worrying Brits include food and drink for the family (26.3 per cent cite as biggest concern) and mortgages (22.2 per cent)
The Life Index is a quarterly survey to determine how Brits are living their lives. Full access to the Life Index findings – broken down by demographic, gender and city - can be obtained by getting in touch with the below contacts.
swiftcover.com offers car, home, travel, motorbike and pet insurance, among other products. See www.swiftcover.com for more information.
Ends
Notes to Editors
*Research carried out among a nationally representative sample of 2,010 UK adults by Opinion Matters from 16 September and 3 October 2011 as part of swiftcover.com’s quarterly Life Index.
For press enquiries please contact:
Luke O’Mahony or Sean Williams
Brazil (PR agency for swiftcover.com)
020 7785 7383
swiftcover@agencybrazil.com
About swiftcover.com:
Based in Cobham, Surrey and employing more than 1,000 people, swiftcover.com started trading in June 2005 and was born out of a desire to revolutionise the general insurance market by making insurance quick and easy to use.
swiftcover.com offers car, home, travel and pet insurance online, and is the only insurance provider in Britain not to use call centres, which provides cost savings that can be passed directly onto the customer, keeping premiums low. swiftcover.com was named Best Value for Money Car Insurer in the UK in the 2010 Lovemoney.com awards.
This powerful operating model combined with successful marketing and competitive pricing has proven to be a tremendous success. In 2008 swiftcover.com achieved over half a million live policies and in May 2009 sold its millionth policy. swiftcover.com is considered to be one of the fastest-growing online insurance providers in the UK and, as of February 2011, has more than 800,000 policy holders.
In 2007, AXA UK acquired swiftcover.com. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of AXA Insurance UK plc which forms part of AXA Group.
About AXA:
AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 216,000 employees serving 93 million clients. In 2010, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 91 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 3.9 billion. AXA had Euro 1,104 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2010.
The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISNFR 0000120628 – Bloomberg: CS FP – Reuters: AXAF.PA). AXA’s American Depository Shares are also quoted on the OTC QX platform under the ticker symbol AXAHY.
The Group is included in the main international SRI indexes, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and FTSE4GOOD.
Our previous company performance is not a guide to how we may perform in the future.
Any opinions expressed in this media communication are made as at the date of this publication but are subject to change without notice.
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