Data source: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53796-what-news-stories-did-britons-hear-most-about-in-2025

Posted by mattsmithetc

7 comments

  1. Over the course of 2025, approximately once a week we at YouGov asked the British public to tell us the single news story they had heard most about in recent days. As an end of year treat, I’ve compiled all of the results into the chart above.

    (Methodology note: respondents answered in their own words, rather than choosing from a list, and we subsequently categorised the answers)

    While the top story of the year was decidedly UK focused, seven of the top ten news story peaks this year were all international stories:

    -64% 2025 Budget, 30 Nov-1 Dec

    -63% US/Israel vs Iran bombings and missile strikes, 22-23 Jun

    -62% LA wildfires, 13-14 Jan

    -56% US tariffs, 6-7 Apr

    -55% Pope Francis death, 27-28 Apr

    -51% Trump on Ukraine war (Zelenskyy-Trump White House argument), 4-5 Mar

    -50% Trump inauguration, 20-21 Jan

    -45% Angela Rayner resignation, 7-8 Sep

    -42% Ukraine peace talks, 17-18 Aug

    -40% Immigration to UK, 31 Aug-1 Sep

    While most stories came and went in short order, some were consistently cited as their “most noticed” by small numbers over the course of the year, namely immigration, Gaza, Ukraine, and Donald Trump. This potentially suggests small hardcore sections of the public are actively binging news on those particular topics, rather than being more passive receivers.

    Some acknowledgements re: methodology

    I acknowledge that asking this question every seven days or so inherently presents an incomplete snapshot, with news stories inevitably having waxed and waned in between survey waves.

    Additionally, in instances where there are multiple major stories in a given week, the single-story methodology ultimately serves to ‘divide the vote’, potentially giving the appearance that these stories were not noticed as much as those in survey waves conducted on weeks that contained only one dominant news story.

    While our study is subject to these limitations, it should nevertheless have captured the very biggest stories of the year.

    Full data is available on the YouGov website: [https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53796-what-news-stories-did-britons-hear-most-about-in-2025](https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53796-what-news-stories-did-britons-hear-most-about-in-2025)

    Tools used: Datawrapper and Adobe Illustrator

  2. Wait, Trump has only been in for a year? Blimey, it feels a lot longer. I know more about him than our prime minister.

  4. A subtle notice, but „The Ukraine war“ is a Russian euphemism for „Russian Invasion of Ukraine“ or „Russo-Ukrainian war“.

  5. Epstein should have been in the “other Donald Trump related” category

  7. I can’t believe that immigration isn’t higher throughout the year – unless it’s just always a low level news all the time so it doesn’t get mentioned? It feels like every other news story is about it.

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