Most Britons feel they can make it in life - but little change over past decade

A newly released Ipsos survey reveals that there has been little change in public attitudes to life chances over the past decade. While most people in Britain feel they can make it in life, a significant minority still consider their life chances to be limited. Three quarters of people disagree that there is little chance for someone like them to make it in life (74%). However, 18 per cent say they agree - the same proportion as when Labour came into power back in 1997.  Those living in Britain's most deprived areas are almost twice as likely to agree (32%).

Ben Page, Chairman of Ipsos's Social Research Institute, commented: "We know that nearly one in five Britons see their life chances as limited - and that figure almost doubles for those who live in Britain's most deprived areas. In this context, improving people's perceptions of the opportunities they have to make it in life is a real challenge for any government".

However, there are also more positive omens for social mobility.  There has been a decline in those saying they are not satisfied with their current life but it is the best they can hope for - 32% now agree, compared with 40% in 1997. There has also been a drop in those agreeing that there is always someone or something preventing them from making the most of their life: 23% of people say they agree, compared with 38% in 1997. Those in the most deprived areas of the country are more likely to agree (37%).

Technical note

Results are taken from Ipsos's Real Trends survey based on 2,019 interviews conducted among a representative sample of adults aged 15+, living in Great Britain. Fieldwork comprised both online and self-completion methodologies. 1,012 online and 1,007 self-completion questionnaires were completed between 9 May and 5 June 2008.                                                

Where results do not sum to 100%, this may be due to multiple responses, computer rounding or the exclusion of "not stated" response categories. An asterisk (*) represents a value of less than half of one per cent, but not zero. Results are based on all 2,019 respondents, unless otherwise stated.                                    

Data were weighted to match the profile of the population by gender, age, region, employment status, social grade, ethnic group and cars in household. Additional attitudinal weighting was employed to compensate for differential recruitment and response rates among face-to-face Omnibus respondents and by a propensity score method to correct for differences between the online panel and the offline Omnibus samples.