Cost of living crisis: Glasgow 4th hardest hit city in the UK

People in Glasgow are among the hardest hit in the UK by the cost of living crisis, research has found.
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Food, energy and fuel prices have all spiked in recent months, leaving people struggling with mounting bills and leading them to search out cost cutting measures.

A study was carried out using search engine data from the last three months from search engine tools Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner and KWFinder, looking at key terms such as energy price cap, payday loans, save money, and cheapest energy supplier.

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This data was then analysed and ranked according to the combined number of searches across all key terms. This data was then ranked.

How well do you know Glasgow?How well do you know Glasgow?
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Glasgow was the 4th most-affected area in the UK, with searches for same day loans being the 3rd most searched term in the entire UK. Other Scottish cities feeling the effect of the cost of living were Aberdeen 7th and Edinburgh 22nd.

Analysis of the data has shown that people from Manchester are struggling with the cost of living more than anyone else in the UK. With 2200 people looking for payday loans per month, 210 Energy price cap searches and 310 people looking for the cheapest energy suppliers, Manchester came out as the worst affected area in the UK based on population size.

Newcastle came in as the second most affected city and with its small population size compared to the other cities and towns it had one of the highest number of searches for payday loans in the study. With 1000 people per month looking for quick ways to get money and cover unexpected costs.

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People from Leeds were the 3rd most-affected place in the UK when it came to the cost of living crisis. Leeds had one of the highest numbers of people looking for information on the Energy Price Cap along with people looking to switch energy providers for the cheapest service.

Newport, Cardiff and the London Borough of Brent were the least affected areas with the fewest number of people searching online for information on the energy price cap, quick loans, ways of saving money and information on the cheapest energy suppliers.

A spokesperson from Pink Storage commented on the findings: “The cost of living is something most of us are worried about, by analysing the online search behaviour we can see how people are trying to make ends meet.

“If wholesale energy prices remain high we can expect further energy price increases and as a result, people’s online search behaviour will reflect this.”

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