London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 17, 2025

12% of Brits say they’re ‘woke’, with Guardian and BBC among ‘wokest’ media outlets, YouGov poll finds

12% of Brits say they’re ‘woke’, with Guardian and BBC among ‘wokest’ media outlets, YouGov poll finds

Some 12% of the British public consider themselves “woke,” according to new research by polling site YouGov, although it appears that not everyone in the UK has added the trendy term to their vocabulary.

In February, YouGov asked 1,692 British adults about what it means to be woke and whether they would use the term to describe themselves – and the full results were published on Tuesday.

While 12% of Brits overall said they were woke, it turns out that 59% of respondents don’t know what the term means, while 30% of those have never actually heard it used.


Of the 41% who say they do understand its meaning, 29% classified themselves as woke, while 56% said they are not. The other 16% weren’t sure if they could claim wokeness.

Among the same cohort able to grasp the concept of being woke, 26% said they think it is a good thing, compared to 37% who deem it a bad thing. Another third felt it was neither good nor bad.

YouGov said its research into what it means to be woke follows the term’s journey into the mainstream lexicon.

The pollster explained that the US-imported word originally referred to a need for people to “wake up to” and “stay woke to” the situation faced by black people during racial segregation.

After the word gained mainstream popularity on the other side of the Atlantic, the Oxford English Dictionary included “woke” in its 2017 update, again tracing its roots back to black American culture. YouGov noted, however, that the word has now evolved to refer to “a more general sense of awareness to social injustice against all groups.”

Indeed, YouGov’s research comes during what could be described as an ultra “woke” period in UK history as the country still grapples with its colonial past following last summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations, sparked by the police killing of black man George Floyd in the US.

The BLM movement also featured in YouGov’s research, with 56% of those who understand the term saying that supporting those activists was a “woke” thing to do. Another 28% felt BLM itself was not specifically woke, but that woke people might be involved in it, while just 8% said it is not woke at all.

Also very woke, according to 60% of in-the-know respondents, is supporting the removal of statues with links to historic abuses such as the slave trade – a key feature of the 2020 protests. Holding a negative view of the British Empire also falls into wokedom, 40% of respondents said.

It was not just statue-toppling protesters who were accused of trying to be woke last year, however.

The BBC also took heat for trying to alter programming to be more socially aware, including by removing British patriotic songs from the Last Night of the Proms, sparking some major anti-woke backlash.

Such antics may have informed the YouGov responses, with 34% of those who understand the term saying the public broadcaster is among the more woke news outlets. That was the same percentage of people who thought the left-leaning Guardian newspaper was woke. Only 14% of Brits overall, however, considered the BBC and Guardian to be woke.

Meanwhile, the Guardian’s more conservative counterpart, the Times, was seen as woke by only 7%, while even fewer (6%) considered the Daily Mail to be woke.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
×