Canadians' Interest in Recreational Space Travel

When Canadians consider how they would respond to the opportunity to travel in space, over half say they would want to spend time on the space shuttle orbiting the Earth, and four in ten say they would be willing to visit the moon for a week or so.

These findings emerged from a pair of questions included in the National Angus Reid/Southam News Poll conducted among a representative cross-section of 1,504 Canadian adults between December 9th and 15th, 1996.

The survey questions were prefaced with a brief reference to the possible discovery of ice on the moon and the observation that this could be helpful in the future exploration and human settlement of the moon. The poll highlights:

• Overall, four in ten (40%) surveyed Canadians said they would want to "travel to the moon and stay there for a week or so" if given the chance. Six in ten (60%), however, said they would not want to journey there.
• Just over half (54%) of Canadians surveyed indicated that, given the opportunity, they would want to "go on the space shuttle and circle the Earth for a few days." Forty-six percent said they would not want to take such a tour on the space shuttle.
• The attraction of such recreational space travel is markedly stronger among men and young people. For instance, one-half (51%) of the men surveyed said they would go to the moon versus just 29 percent of women. Enthusiasm for space travel is also strongest among younger Canadians and declines sharply with age - for example, while 68 percent of 18 to 34 year-olds surveyed said they want to ride the space shuttle (rising to 77% among young men), only about half this number of older respondents (36%, declining to 23% of older women) concurred.
• The regional findings show respondents from B.C. tended to be the most enthusiastic about space travel (61% want to ride the shuttle), in contrast to Atlantic Canadians (57% of these "down-to-earth" Canadians do not want to ride).

This National Angus Reid/Southam News Poll was conducted by telephone between December 9th and 15th, 1996 among a representative cross-section of 1,504 Canadian adults.

The actual number of completed interviews in each region was as follows: B.C. - 201; Alberta - 135; Manitoba/Saskatchewan - 121; Ontario - 526; Quebec - 401; Atlantic - 120. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1991 Census data.

With a national sample of 1,504, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results are within ±2.5 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

For more information on this release, plese contact:

Darrell Bricker
Senior Vice President
Angus Reid Group
(613) 241-5802

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(416) 324-2900