Just one in five would describe Britain today as doing 'great'

New polling from Ipsos, featuring in Torsten Bell’s book Great Britain? How we get our future back, explores public attitudes towards Great Britain.

• Just one in five (20%) would describe Britain as doing ‘great’. Younger age groups are more likely to think this (29% of 18-84s) than those aged 55+ (11%).
• Of those who think Britain is not doing great, the top reasons for this include: public services getting worse (67%), poor political leadership (56%) and the poor state of infrastructure (55%). 
  • The top reason among those aged 18-34 is not enough affordable, quality housing (58%), whilst those aged 35-54 and 55+ is public services getting worse (64% and 76% respectively). 
• When asked what they think would make the most difference to Britain becoming ‘great’ in the future, the top reasons are improved public services (51%) and higher wages and a better standard of living (46%) 
  • Those aged 18-34 believe more affordable, quality housing would make the most difference (45%), whilst those aged 35-54 say higher wages and a better standard of living (51%) and those aged 55+ think improved public services (64%).
• Just over one in ten (20%) knew that Britain is referred to as ‘Great Britain’ because the island that makes up England, Scotland and Wales is bigger than islands around it. Two in five (41%) said they don’t know. 

This polling features in Torsten Bell’s book Great Britain? How we get our future back, published by The Bodley Head at Penguin Random House on Thursday 13th June.

Technical note 
Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,080 adults aged 18-75 across Great Britain. Polling was conducted online on between 8-12 March 2024. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.