Unemployment is Europe's Biggest Concern

Unemployment is the single biggest national concern among British people (48%) as well as being the major domestic issue in Europe (59%), according to a survey conducted by MORI across 13 European countries.

There is less consensus between Britain and Europe as a whole in relation to other issues. Education and health are major worries of the British public as a whole (each referred to by around three in ten) while only six per cent of Europeans focus on education and fourteen per cent on health.

Law and order is the second most important issue in Britain, mentioned by around one in three people (and 20% of Europeans).

War and civil conflict is the principal international concern for Europeans (41%), followed by famine (27%) environment and pollution (25%) and poverty (21%).

The survey which was conducted by UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) in conjunction with Population Concern and Marie Stopes International (MSI) found relatively few saw population increase and, especially, other related issues such as reproductive health and rights, gender issues, women's rights and adolescent sexuality as top global issues.

Nonetheless, when asked specifically about these issues, almost two-thirds (63%) of Europeans said that they wanted family planning services to be available to people in developing countries. In addition, half in each case, consider lack of access to family planning and education to be key causes of population growth.

Technical details

MORI interviewed a representative sample of 937 adults aged 16+ in Great Britain between 4 and 7 October 1996. Similar surveys in 12 other European countries were co-ordinated by MORI. In all, just over 13,000 people took part in the research.