This past Monday was “Blue Monday”. Aside from sounding like a New Order song, it is often cited as the most depressing day of the year. The good news is that we made it through unscathed. The less good news is that the weather does not appear to have improved much since.

With Blue Monday falling this week, it feels like a timely moment to check in on our Optimism tracking and look at how positive UK consumers were feeling as we closed out December.

As we enter the final quarter of 2025, the wet weather and darker nights are making the heady days of summer feel like a distant memory. But does the national mood mirror the gloomy skies, or are UK consumers holding onto some positivity as we head towards year-end? 

According to the latest wave of The Harris Poll UK’s Optimism Index, the answer is… a bit of both. 

After months of economic anxiety and cost-of-living pressures, UK consumers are finally feeling a little lighter – and the numbers back it up. Our latest results of our ongoing tracking shows optimism rising sharply in June, with 2 in 5 people (42%) scoring their outlook between 8–10 out of 10. Even more telling, the number of consumers giving a ‘perfect 10’ has doubled from May to June (from 8% to 15%).

And why does that matter? Because how we feel changes what we do. In particular – how, when and where we spend.

There’s good news on the UK economic front, and its news worth celebrating. Consumer sentiment has seen a significant uplift. The latest Maru monthly ‘Cost of Living’ survey of UK consumers shows an 11% increase in consumer economic confidence. We have been tracking sentiment around the cost-of-living since April 2021, and the recent results are the clearest sign yet that the national mood is shifting and that optimism is on the rise.