"Let's get out of town!" Let's take a dog! Let’s get divorced!’ Do we regret our pandemic life changes?

There has been a lot of big talk during the pandemic as we have used this odd combination of silence and panic to reevaluate our priorities. The fear of change evaporates when everywhere you look there is an upheaval that you did not choose. Why not do what you've always wanted to do, drop your job or get an iguana? Practically speaking, it was a new world, in which life in the city was all down and not up. Suddenly, the relationships you thought would last until death do you part no longer last five minutes; at the same time, the person you met on Wednesday was now living with you. The pointlessness of your job jumped out at you, but was it the job itself, or just an indicator of modern life?

Especially in 2020, everything it seemed to be going to bring huge changes in life. In August of that year, one in seven Londoners wanted to leave the city. Nationally, four in 10 people were more likely to look for homes in rural areas than they were before Covid. Developers in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool were panicking. In early 2021, an estate agent noted the "biggest exodus out of London for a generation".

Meanwhile, requests for divorce lawyers soared . One firm, Stowe Family Law, reported a 162% increase between 2020 and 2021. While surveys fueled actual divorces, the Courts and Tribunals Service showed 3,000 divorces recorded in the week of April 6, 2022. The average previous year was 2000.