Google has revealed its 2021 list of the top searches for the year and broken down what the nation has been Googling.
Last year’s results were dominated by the global pandemic, but this year the population of the UK turned to sport.
According to Google, ‘Euros’ was the most searched term of the year. Followed by ‘Premier League’ and then ‘Christian Eriksen’, the Danish footballer who suffered a cardiac arrest during the summer tournament.
‘It’s no surprise that 2021 has revealed some interesting insights into the zeitgeist of the nation,’ said Matt Cooke, head of Google News Lab said.
‘During a year of unpredictability, we have turned to sport, entertainment, gardening, recipes and UK-based travel to get us through some of the most frustrating and difficult times.
‘We have seen searches for prominent women dominate the top of our lists, as well as huge rises in second-hand and sustainability queries over 2021.’
England didn’t ended the 55-year wait for a trophy, but fans still came together. Searches for ‘Three Lions’ and ‘Sweet Caroline’ both featured into Google’s top trending songs of the year.
Meanwhile, when it came to entertainment, Brits mostly searched for Bridgerton, Love Island and No Time to Die in 2021.
‘Year in Search always provides fascinating insight into what the nation is thinking, learning and discovering – about themselves and others,’ Cooke said.
Most of 2021’s top searches were related to individuals at the centre of the year’s biggest news stories.
Prince Philip, Matt Hancock, Emma Raducanu and Sarah Everard were all names that made the top ten searches and of course, the coronavirus pandemic, it wasn’t far from our search queries.
As borders reopened, Brits were keen to get some sunshine, with questions surrounding the traffic light system topping travel searches – but this was only after staycations saw a surge in searches with ‘caravan’ featuring high up in the list.
2021 also saw ‘covid vaccine’ top the news list and queries around the reopening of ‘schools’, ‘gyms’ and ‘hairdressers’ dominating the ‘when’ trending search list.
Here’s Google’s full list of top trending search terms for the UK in 2021.
All terms
- Euros
- Premier League
- Christian Eriksen
- Covid vaccine
- Prince Philip
- Matt Hancock
- Emma Raducanu
- Sarah Everard
- England vs Denmark
- Sean Lock
News
- Covid vaccine
- Matt Hancock
- Sarah Everard
- Afghanistan
- GME
- Kyle Rittenhouse
- Gabby Petito
- Green list countries
- Lockdown
- Palestine
Sport
- Euros
- Premier League
- England vs Denmark
- Champions League
- England vs Italy
- Wimbledon
- Olympic medal table
- England vs Germany
- England vs Scotland
- NBA
People
- Christian Eriksen
- Matt Hancock
- Emma Raducanu
- Piers Morgan
- Alec Baldwin
- Travis Scott
- Ronaldo
- Jack Grealish
- Tyson Fury
- Ashley Cain
Political Figures
- Matt Hancock
- Joe Biden
- Bernie Sanders
- Greta Thunberg
- Nicola Sturgeon
- Sajid Javid
- Owen Paterson
- Jackie Weaver
- Angela Rayner
- Nancy Pelosi
Athletes
- Christian Eriksen
- Emma Raducanu
- Ronaldo
- Jack Grealish
- Tyson Fury
- Harry Kane
- Anthony Joshua
- Conor McGregor
- Andy Murray
- Gareth Southgate
TV
- Squid Game
- Bridgerton
- The Serpent
- Line Of Duty
- Love Island
- Behind Her Eyes
- Its A Sin
- Pembrokeshire Murders
- Vigil
- Friends Reunion
Film
- Dune
- Black Widow
- Eternals
- No Time To Die
- Red Notice
- Army Of The Dead
- Shang Chi
- Halloween Kills
- Suicide Squad
- Jungle Cruise