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New poll shows the most important issue for voters in every part of Wales

01 May 2022 3 minute read
Voting in Wales

The economy dominates the concerns of most people in Wales as the country prepares to vote in Thursday’s local elections, a new poll has revealed.

Royal Holloway and Survation have launched a new tracker, which shows the issues that are most important in each of Great Britain’s 632 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies.

They gave voters a choice of five issues – the economy, Covid, Brexit, time and energy.

In Wales, 14 of 40 constituencies chose Covid as the top issue – Ynys Môn, Arfon, Clwyd West, Dwyfor-Meirionnydd, Ceredigion, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, Llanelli, Swansea West, Neath, Aberavon, Rhondda, Cynon Valley, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, and the Vale of Glamorgan.

The other 25 constituencies chose the economy as the issue that was most pressing.

Only one constituency chose an issue other than Covid or the economy – Cardiff Central, which chose Brexit as its top issue.

Arfon and Dwynfor-Meirionnydd, which collectively make up the county of Gwynedd, were the constituencies most concerned about Covid, with 45% of voters in each picking that as their top issue.

Cardiff North voters were most concerned about the economy, with 35% picking it as their top issue.

The top issues by Welsh constituency according to Royal Holloway and Survation

Across the nations of the UK, the results show that the economy in general is the top issue in most constituencies (460), followed by coronavirus (153).

Other issues which appeared as some of the most important were, Brexit (17 constituencies), crime (1 constituency) and energy (1 constituency).

Seats held by Conservative MPs are overwhelmingly likely to indicate that the economy was the most important issue (88%). Seats held by Labour MPs were split more evenly between coronavirus (50%), the economy (43%), and Brexit (7%).

Commenting on the release of the tracker, Professor Chris Hanretty from Royal Holloway’s Democracy and Elections Centre, said: “MPs often talk about what’s important on the doorstep – usually when they want to deflect attention from another issue.

“Now for the first time we’ve got some insight into what’s important at local level. It’s going to be interesting cross-checking these results against what MPs say people are telling them.”

CEO of Survation, Damian Lyons Lowe, added: “We’ve been working in partnership with Royal Holloway for five years now, and it’s great to see that we’ll be able to share the fruits of that co-operation regularly and publicly.”

The top issues in every UK constituency according to Royal Holloway and Survation

The tracker uses multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) techniques to show which issues matter most in different areas.

MRP works by predicting what survey respondents say using information on the respondents’ characteristics and the characteristics of their area and extrapolating that to constituencies.

Survation polled 14,304 people in Great Britain between the 16 February and 30 March. Respondents were given a list of twenty-two issues and asked to pick the two most important issues facing the country right now.


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Dai Rob
Dai Rob
2 years ago

Very noticeable how Covid is the main issue in Wales, in most constituencies, apart from the tory ones!

Iorwerth ap Wyllt
Iorwerth ap Wyllt
2 years ago

I’m still very concerned about Covid due to health issues and thought I was the only one still thinking it was an issue as most people online these days care more about getting back to normal than protecting peoples health and in some cases lives.

I feel kind of comforted knowing I’m not the only one in my area who is still seeing tackling covid as an issue, obviously I’m biased due to still being at risk but the fact that my neighbours still feel the same makes me feel a little safer knowing that It’s still on their minds.

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