23% net optimism

→No change on last week ↓-3pts on last year

12 Jun 2026

Net optimism sits at 23% this week – down on last year, and still fragile. Behind that number is a country that feels like dry ground waiting for a spark.

First Southampton, then Belfast. Different triggers, same underlying anger – people who feel worse off, ignored and stuck in a life that seems unfair. That anger needs somewhere to go, and opportunists are happy to point it at the most visible target: migration. The eruption came over numbers the country feels rather than knows – net migration has actually been falling sharply.

Trust in the police has fallen hard, and brands should read it as a warning.

When the country feels this anxious, faith can vanish overnight.

So we're hunkering down. Big decisions on jobs and money are on pause – safer standing still than stepping forwards. Savings are squeezed and rising prices keep shrinking what the cushion we’ve got left. We're seeing each other less – around 20 million fewer meet-ups this year – and when we do meet, quieter lives and no-go topics mean conversations stall and time together drains us.

The World Cup offers a respite. Expect groans too – the heat, the hydration breaks, the prices, the politics – yet it's the closest thing to common ground we've had in a while.

What should brands do? Three things.

• Give people small things to share – great service, surprise discounts, little wins that spark easy conversation.
• Acknowledge the world honestly – pretending nothing has changed becomes its own form of division.
• And make the World Cup an occasion, not a team – help people find the positives whatever the result.

Source: Kokoro Mood of the Nation, 12 June 2026, base 2,026