Financial Lives 2020 survey

Find out more about the Financial Lives 2020 survey including our reports and data.

A total of 16,190 respondents completed our 2020 survey. Ending in February 2020, the results give us an understanding of consumers’ financial positions before the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

A second survey the 'October 2020 Covid-19 panel survey' was conducted with 22,000 respondents to focus on the impact of COVID-19.

Reports

We published 3 reports using these 2 surveys:

2020 main report: Financial Lives 2020 survey: the impact of coronavirus

Our main report provides key findings from both the Financial Lives 2020 survey and the October 2020 Covid-19 panel survey.

Download Financial Lives 2020 survey: the impact of coronavirus (PDF)[1]

Executive summary[2]

Consumer research to inform the Financial Advice Market Review

This report uses insights from the Financial Lives 2020 survey alongside bespoke qualitative research to look at consumers’ views on their needs for support with financial issues; how they go about getting that support, and their experiences of support.

Download Consumer research to inform the FCA’s Review (PDF)[3]

FCA outcomes and metrics

The FCA are committed to being clear about how we are accountable for our progress. The Financial Lives 2020 survey provides the baseline metrics for a number of these outcomes.

View our latest outcomes and metrics[4]

2020 data tables

We provide the multi-volume data tables from our 2020 survey.

These data tables provide access to the results of almost all the survey questions and to different ways the data can be looked at. Given the breadth of the survey, we have not included all the results in our published reports.

To guide you through the various volumes of data tables we have published a data tables user guide[5].

Financial Lives 2020 data tables

Weighted data tables (XLSX)
1. Demographics[6]	2. Attitudes[7]	3. Product Ownership part 1[8]	3. Product Ownership part 2[9]	4. Assets and Debts[10]
5. Advice - Incidence[11]	6. Retail Banking[12]	7. Mortgages[13]	8. Consumer Credit 2[14]	9. High Cost Credit[15]
10. Consumer Credit 1[16]	11. General Insurance & Protection[17]	12. Pension Accumulation[18]	13. Risk and Return[19]	14. Pension Decumulation[20]
15. Advice and Guidance[21]	16. Financial Concepts –Numeracy[22]	17. All other sections[23]	18. Summaries[24]

Appendix A to the Financial Lives 2020 main report

We cover just over 100 different products or groups of products in the survey. Appendix A (Product holdings) (XLSX)[25] includes a spreadsheet which shows the proportions and numbers of UK adults holding them for 2017 and 2020.

October 2020 Covid-19 panel survey data tables

These data tables[26] provide access to the results of the October 2020 Covid-19 panel survey.

Financial Advice Market Review

The Financial Advice Market Review looks at specific products and groups which can be reported on from all of the 2020 data tables by using the following headings:

• Investible assets

• Had regulated advice in last 12 months (FAMR Groups)

• Received support in the last 12 months (Advice and/or Guidance)

Survey raw data

Raw data from the Financial Lives 2020 survey can be accessed on application from the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC)[27].

Financial Lives 2020 data tables correction

The Financial Lives 2020 data tables were rerun in June 2022 with the following corrections:

Urban/ rural: UK adults who were previously unallocated, ie neither allocated to living in a rural or an urban area, have now been correctly allocated to living in an urban area. This affects an unweighted base of 136 respondents.
Base definition of AT18a in Data Tables Volume 3. Product Ownership part 2: This has been corrected from ‘All UK adults with a relevant product’ to ‘All UK adults’.

Weighting - we have made changes to some 2020 published results as we identified the need to improve data weighting. Very few of these have resulted in a change of more than one percentage point. Please see FLS 2020 data tables corrigenda[28] for more information.

The Financial Lives 2022 technical report[29] explains this weighting enhancement and its impact on the 2020 results.

First published: 26/07/2023 Last updated: 26/07/2023