Ipsos Equalities Index 2025: More needs to be done to promote equality, but support has slipped over the last two years

The outcome of the 2024 US Presidential election has prompted a shift in the political climate around the world, with repercussions for the way many social issues are discussed and how policies around equality, diversity and inclusion are formulated. The Ipsos Equalities Index has been running since 2023, and our third edition shows where and how public views are changing in response to this - and where they are not. 

Key findings include:

• Half (50%) consider inequality to be one of the most important issues facing their country.
• Generally, more of us believe that our chances of success in life are determined by our own merits (42%) than believe they are due to factors beyond our control (30%) – and these numbers have changed very little since 2023. But we see signs that the views of older and younger adults are diverging.
• 43% think that efforts to promote equality for all groups of people need to go further – more than twice the number (21%) who say that they have already gone too far. But this gap has closed – in 2023, nearly half (49%) said that more should be done, and less than 1 in 5 (19%) said that things had gone too far.
• Compared with other countries, Americans are considerably less likely to hold government responsible for tackling inequality (48% v Global country average of 65%), and much more likely to say that this is a job for individuals (34% v Global country average of 20%). Although Democrat supporters are typically more aligned with opinion in the rest of the world, even they are 10ppt more likely than the global average to say individuals should be responsible for addressing inequality.
• Although the US is a more unequal country than other advanced economies, Americans are generally less likely to view it as a serious problem – only 4 in 10 agree that it is one of the most important issues the country faces.
• Gen Z are around six times as likely as Baby Boomers to say they have a cognitive or learning disability, and more than three times as likely to describe themselves as neurodivergent.
• Views on which particular groups face unfair treatment are largely unchanged over the last two years, although we do see slight falls in the proportion of those saying LGBT+ people are the victims of discrimination.