Glasgow residents are among the hardest hit in the UK by the cost of living crisis, a study has found.
Food, energy and fuel prices have all skyrocketed in recent months, leaving people struggling with ever-larger bills and leading them to seek cost-cutting measures.
A study was carried out using search engine data from the last three months of search engine tools Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner and KWFinder, looking at key terms such as energy price cap, payday loans, money savings and the cheapest energy supplier.
This data was then analyzed and ranked based on the combined number of searches for all key terms. These data were then classified.
The most popular
Glasgow was the 4th most affected area in the UK, with searches for same day loans being the 3rd most searched term in the whole of the UK. Other Scottish cities feeling the effect of the cost of living are Aberdeen 7th and Edinburgh 22nd.
Analysis of the data showed that people in Manchester are struggling with the cost of living more than anyone else in the UK. With 2,200 people looking for payday loans per month, 210 searches for energy price caps and 310 people looking for the cheapest energy suppliers, Manchester emerged as the worst affected area in the UK according to of the size of its population.
Newcastle was the second most affected city and, with its small population compared to other cities and towns, it had one of the highest numbers of payday loan searches in the study. With 1000 people a month looking for quick ways to get cash and cover unexpected expenses.
People in Leeds were the 3rd worst hit place in the UK when it comes to the cost of living crisis. Leeds had one of the highest numbers of people seeking information about the energy price cap, as well as 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 people searching online for information on energy price caps, fast loans, ways to save money and information on the cheapest energy suppliers.
A spokesperson for pink storage commented on the findings: “The cost of living is a concern for most of us. By analyzing online search behavior, we can see how people are trying to make ends meet.
“If wholesale energy prices remain high, we can expect further increases in energy prices and, as a result, online search behavior of internet users will reflect this.”
