Overall satisfaction with the NHS rose significantly in 2025, but the improvement did not appear in ratings for individual services. The British Social Attitudes survey found that 26.3% of adults were satisfied with the way the NHS runs, up from 20.7% in 2024. Dissatisfaction fell from 59% to 51%.
That movement ended a run of annual declines in overall satisfaction and marked the largest fall in dissatisfaction for more than 25 years. It still left only about one person in four satisfied, however, and the individual results for general practice, dentistry, accident and emergency, and hospital care remained close to historic lows.
The central finding is a split between a better overall judgment and persistently weak service-level ratings. The report's authors found no statistically significant year-on-year change in satisfaction with any of the four individual NHS services. They also said the survey could not establish why overall sentiment improved.
The Survey Measured Attitudes, Not Service Performance
The main NHS question was answered by 3,464 adults in England, Scotland and Wales. Fieldwork ran from 26 August to 6 October 2025. NatCen selected the sample randomly and weighted the results to represent the British public, including people who had and had not recently used NHS services.
Respondents were asked how satisfied or dissatisfied they were with the way the NHS runs. The published satisfaction figure combines those who answered “very satisfied” and “quite satisfied.” It is a measure of public opinion, not a direct count of appointments, waiting times, staffing levels or clinical outcomes.
Recent contact with the NHS was associated with a more positive view. Satisfaction was 27% among people who had used or had contact with services in the previous year and 16% among those without contact. The survey does not show that contact caused the difference, and other characteristics may also separate the two groups.
Service Ratings Stayed Near Historic Lows
Satisfaction with general practice was 35%, while 45% were dissatisfied. GP satisfaction was higher than in 2024, but the change was not statistically significant. People aged 65 and over were more satisfied with GP services than adults aged 18 to 64.
Dentistry, A&E and hospital care showed the same caution. Their apparent annual increases could not be distinguished confidently from sampling variation. The report therefore does not support a claim that patients experienced a broad, measurable turnaround across front-line services during 2025.
Other answers help explain why the overall rise remains fragile. Half of respondents were satisfied with the quality of NHS care, but 71% disagreed that the NHS had enough staff. Waiting-time satisfaction remained low, and only 16% expected the standard of care to improve over the next five years. Fifty-three percent expected it to get worse.
Commitment to the NHS Model Remained Strong
Low satisfaction did not amount to rejection of the NHS's founding principles. Eighty-nine percent said care should definitely or probably be free when needed, 81% supported funding the service primarily through taxation, and 74% said it should be available to everyone.
Those majorities remained large, although support for each principle has declined since the questions were first asked in 2021. Views also differed by political affiliation, particularly on whether the NHS should be available to everyone. The results describe public preferences; they do not predict a change in the funding model.
Opinion on spending was closely divided. Forty-five percent favored higher taxes and more NHS spending, while 43% preferred keeping taxation and spending at the same level. Eight percent chose lower taxes and less NHS spending. That distribution shows broad support for the institution but no equivalent consensus on how additional resources should be raised.
A Better Headline Number Is Not a Service Recovery
Social care provides the sharpest warning against reading the NHS rebound too broadly. Satisfaction with social care was 14% in 2025 and dissatisfaction was 49%. The fall in social-care dissatisfaction from 53% was statistically significant, but the one-point rise in satisfaction was not.
A government can fairly point to the first significant rise in overall NHS satisfaction since 2019. It cannot use that result as evidence that GP access, dentistry, emergency care or hospital services improved significantly over the same year. Those are separate questions, and the survey produced different answers.
The next judgment should depend on whether service measures and later public attitudes move together. Until then, the defensible conclusion is narrow: the national mood became less negative from a very low base, while service ratings, staffing concerns, future confidence and social care remained weak.