Proof that even a pandemic can’t quash our compassion, concern about the health of our loved ones tops the list at 44%. In comparison, 31% of respondents said they were very concerned about their own health.

42% of people said they were very concerned about their country’s economy. These worries are understandable, with economies the world over, such as the Eurozone, posting some of their worst economic numbers ever.

This is intrinsically linked to jobs. Tens of millions worldwide have already lost work, while millions more have been furloughed or had hours cut.

With government schemes likely to be temporary, far more job losses could be on the horizon. It’s clearly weighing heavily on the minds of workers.

On average, 20% of people are very concerned about losing their jobs, but this differs a lot by country.

Those in Spain and Italy seem to have the most anxiety about jobs, tallying with them being among the hardest hit countries in Europe. Having said that, the UK, which has the highest death toll on the continent, shows the least amount of worry.

This may be due to the country’s furlough scheme, in which the government pays 80% of a worker’s wage. But there are already reports that this scheme will start to be phased out in a few months. If true, employment anxiety amongst Brits will likely rise.

Search and self care

It’s clear that lockdown has had an effect on our stress and anxiety levels, meaning some much needed TLC is in order. And according to our Consumer Research platform, there were 556k English-language mentions of home spa treatments in March and April.

Social media conversations about home treatments, DIY treatments, and spa days at home were up 18% in March and April, compared to January and February.

Google Trends data also echoes how popular these activities have become. Searches around home spa treatments have been rising sharply since mid-March, peaking last week.

We found skincare to be a key concern for consumers in March and April – there were 37k mentions of DIY facials and 17k mentions of facemasks within home treatment conversations.

And the pandemic hasn’t meant people have dropped their ethical stances on beauty products. We found 20k mentions of vegan, ethically sourced, or sustainably sourced self-care products.

This is an undeniably stressful time for millions around the world, and a little home TLC where you can spend some time on yourself goes a long way. It will be interesting to see how this trend changes over time as we head back to our workplaces and schools – will consumers keep it up or head back to the professionals?

Food, glorious food

Our relationships with food have gone through a lot over the last month or so. Whether it’s because of bare shop shelves, closed restaurants, or an attempt to keep healthy, many people’s diets have been changed by Covid-19.

In the same Qriously survey we mentioned earlier, we also asked people about their food habits. Specifically asking about junk, organic, and ethically-sourced food, we asked whether they were eating more, less, or the same amount. Here’s what they told us.

We can see that junk food consumption has changed the most, with just 42% of people saying they’re eating the same amount as they were pre-pandemic. For organic and ethically-sourced food, it’s 63% and 65% respectively.

Overall, for those who changed their intake, people were more likely to eat less of each type than more. This is possibly due to difficulties in consumers buying the products they usually do, an issue currently faced by 30% of people.

We also took a look at how location impacted results.

Doctors will be pretty happy with this chart, we think. All countries (except the US) had more people reporting eating less junk food than eating more, with ‘less’ being the most popular option in Spain, Italy, China, and the UK.

In the remaining countries, people were most likely to pick the ‘same amount’ option. Germany looks particularly set in its culinary ways, with 54% of respondents there reporting they’re eating the same amount of junk food as they always did.

On the ethical side of things, we see a similar picture.

Aside from China, all countries we studied saw a larger % of respondents eating less ethically-sourced food than more of it.

The main difference when comparing this data to the junk food data is less fluctuation. On average, 65% of respondents had not changed how much ethically-sourced food they were eating.

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Brandwatch Response Team