How Prepared Is the UK for an Emergency? What the 2025 Data Shows

In spring 2025 the Cabinet Office and Defra ran the first UK Public Survey of Risk Perception, Resilience and Preparedness, a nationally representative poll of 10,536 adults across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is the clearest picture yet of how ready British households actually are for an emergency, and the headline is sobering: most of us are not. This page pulls together the key figures from that survey, alongside official flood and power-cut data, to show where the country stands and what a calm, sensible response looks like.

Only 13% of households feel prepared

When asked how prepared their household was for an emergency or disaster, just 13% of respondents said they felt largely or totally prepared. Another 32% felt moderately prepared. That leaves 51% who felt only slightly prepared or not at all prepared, with a further 3% unsure. In other words, around half the country openly admits it is not ready, and only about one household in eight feels genuinely on top of it. This is not a fringe worry either: 66% of people think the number of emergencies and disasters in the UK will increase over the next ten years.

There is a striking gap between belief and action. Almost three-quarters of respondents (73%) agreed there are effective steps people can take to prepare, and 69% agreed it is important to prepare even for events that are unlikely. Most people know preparation matters and believe it works. They simply have not done it yet.

A third couldn't cope for a single day

The most revealing question asked people to imagine a power cut that also knocked out their gas and water. How long could they meet their household's basic needs before needing outside help? Almost a third, 32%, said one day or less. Another 39% put it at two to three days. Only 10% felt they could last six days or more. This matters because the government's own Prepare guidance encourages households to be able to look after themselves for a period during an emergency, and the reality is that most homes would be reaching for help within 72 hours.

That fragility is not because the risks are abstract. It is because the everyday systems we rely on, electricity, heating, clean water and card payments, are all tightly coupled. When one fails, the others often follow, and a surprising number of homes have almost no buffer.

What people actually have at home

The survey asked in detail about supplies. The good news is that some basics are widespread: 77% have a smoke detector, 61% keep at least 10 pounds in cash per person, 61% have spare batteries for a torch or radio, and 59% have a carbon monoxide detector. Beyond that, coverage thins out. Some 57% have a first aid kit and 57% keep at least seven days of essential medicine, but only 55% own a torch and just 24% have a battery, solar or wind-up radio that would work when the mobile network and mains power are down.

On food, 66% said they had around three days of non-perishable food that needs no cooking, but only 48% had seven days' worth. And when it comes to preparation as a habit rather than a cupboard, 47% keep power-cut essentials such as a torch, radio and important phone numbers together in one place, while 19% reported having taken none of the listed preparedness steps at all. Encouragingly, 60% know how to turn off their water, gas or electricity supply, a small skill that matters enormously during a leak, a flood or a gas scare.

Water is the single biggest gap

If there is one number that should give every household pause, it is this: 43% of respondents reported having no bottled or mineral water at home at all. A further 14% had only one to two litres. Just 43% had three litres or more. Water is the first thing you run short of in an emergency and the hardest to improvise safely, yet it is the supply most households have neglected. A mains failure, a burst main or contamination after flooding can cut clean water with no notice, and shops empty of bottled water within hours.

The fix is cheap and takes minutes. Storing a few litres per person, and keeping a simple means to treat water such as purification tablets or a filter, closes the most dangerous gap in most UK homes. Our guide to storing water for emergencies covers realistic quantities, rotation and safe treatment for British conditions.

The risks are real, and rising

None of this is theoretical. In December 2024 the Environment Agency published its updated National Assessment of Flood Risk, which found that around 6.3 million properties in England are in areas at risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or surface water. Storms are now a regular feature of British winters: Storm Eowyn in January 2025 left well over 600,000 homes and businesses without power, according to the Energy Networks Association, some for days. The survey reflects this lived experience. Asked what they thought likely in their local area over the next two years, 55% expected a disruptive storm, 48% expected extreme cold, and 47% thought a 12-hour power cut was likely or very likely.

So the public is not complacent about the threat. British households broadly expect storms, cold snaps and power cuts. The disconnect is entirely on the response side: people see the risk clearly but have not translated that awareness into a few litres of water, a wind-up radio or a plan.

Why people don't prepare

The survey asked directly what stops people taking further steps. Cost led the way, with 27% saying they had been prevented by not having enough money. Close behind, 25% said they did not know what actions to take, and 24% did not want products to go out of date and be thrown away. Space was a barrier for 21%, and 18% said they simply did not want to think about emergencies because they found it stressful or worrying. Only 15% felt they had already done everything they needed to.

Two of those barriers, not knowing what to do and worrying about waste, are the easiest to remove. Most meaningful preparation costs very little and uses things that do not expire quickly: water, a torch, spare batteries, a radio, copies of key documents and a written list of phone numbers. The knowledge gap, rather than money, is often the real obstacle, and it is one that clear, honest guidance can fix.

The information gap

That knowledge gap shows up starkly in the data. Only 19% of respondents recalled seeing or hearing any advice in the last 12 months about how to prepare for emergencies in the UK, while 75% had not. Just 13% had visited the government's own GOV.UK/Prepare website. Awareness of the Emergency Alerts service, the system that sends warnings straight to mobile phones, was higher at 63%, but overall most people are simply not encountering practical preparedness information in their daily lives.

This is exactly the gap a resource like this one exists to close. When people do see good advice, they tend to act on it: among those who recalled seeing preparedness information, 63% said they had actually done something as a result.

What being prepared actually looks like

The reassuring conclusion from the data is that the bar for being genuinely better prepared than most of the country is low. You do not need a bunker or a big budget. If you store a few litres of water per person, keep three to seven days of food that needs no cooking, own a torch and a wind-up or battery radio, keep some cash and copies of your key documents together, and know how to turn off your utilities, you are already ahead of the large majority of UK households. Adding a simple grab bag by the door and a basic family plan covers most realistic UK scenarios.

If you want a structured starting point, our home emergency kit and beginner's kit lists set out sensible items and quantities, and our UK-specific checklists break the job into small, affordable steps you can do over a few weekends. The goal is not fear; it is quiet confidence that if the power goes out on a winter evening or a flood warning lands, your household can look after itself calmly for a few days.

Sources and methodology

The household figures on this page are drawn from the UK Public Survey of Risk Perception, Resilience and Preparedness 2025, published by the Cabinet Office and Defra, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 10,536 UK adults aged 18 and over between 11 March and 8 April 2025. All percentages are weighted to be representative of the UK population and rounded to the nearest whole number, so totals may not sum to exactly 100%. Flood figures are from the Environment Agency's National Assessment of Flood Risk, published December 2024. Storm power-cut figures are from the Energy Networks Association. Government preparedness guidance referenced here is from GOV.UK/Prepare. Figures were compiled by Survival-Kit.co.uk and are correct as of the sources' latest publications; journalists and researchers are welcome to cite this summary with a link.