What's Worrying Britain - Five Years On

What's Worrying Britain? A Scottish Perspective - Scottish press release

The British public's concerns about education and unemployment have halved (Footnote 1) over the past five years, whilst the issue of immigration and race relations has shot up the rankings, according to a new MORI poll commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) that compares 1996 attitudes to those in 2001.

The survey, launched today (June 21) in the Scottish Parliament by UK reproductive health agencies Population Concern and Marie Stopes International, follows up a similar 1996 MORI poll assessing the domestic and international social concerns of the general public in 13 European countries.

The research is part of the ongoing European 'face-to-face' campaign, co-sponsored by UNFPA and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), to raise public awareness about sexual and reproductive health issues world-wide. In the UK the campaign has seen the recruitment of Geri Halliwell and Magenta Devine as UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors, a national schools' essay writing competition and a commemorative balloon release in 1999, to mark world population reaching six billion people.

Key domestic findings from the GB study are:

• Law and order remains a top concern (cited by 33%, up one point on 1996)
• Worry about unemployment has dropped from 48% in 1996 to 23%
• Concerns about education have fallen from 30% in 1996, to 16% now
• Worries about race relations and immigration have risen from 3% in 1996, to 19% now

The European responses reveal a similar pattern - a fall in concerns over unemployment, from an average of 59% to 29%, and a rise in worries about race relations and immigration, from 12% to 21%.

The British public's greatest international concern is the environment and global warming (33% now, up from 22% in 1996), followed by poverty at 29%, compared to 20% five years ago. Concern about war and internal conflict has dropped from 40% to 14%.

In a series of separate questions relating to reproductive health (Footnote 2), 57% of Britons believe HIV/AIDS is a major problem for developing countries, with two-thirds saying they would most like to see the UK Government fund education programmes about the prevention of HIV / AIDS and safer sex.

Britons believe foreign aid represents about 9% of their government's expenditure (although two fifths were unable to give an estimate). In fact, the actual level in 1999 was just 0.7%. When told this, most respondents (53%) believed it to be too low, a third (32%) felt it was about right and 7% felt that it was too high.

This finding was welcomed by the participating agencies: UNFPA, Population concern, Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

"The British public is clearly committed to overseas aid and it is significant and encouraging that most would like to see the percentage increased," said Ms Patricia Hindmarsh, Director of External Relations, Marie Stopes International.

"The findings show that Britons are aware of the global threat of HIV/ AIDS. The support for extra funding for education and preventive programmes is plainly endorsed by the survey," added Ros Davies, Chief Executive of Population Concern.

Health and education remain the two areas that the British public would most like to see benefit from foreign aid, suggesting increased awareness that providing support for social sector programmes of developing countries can help solve their developmental problems.

Other areas of particular interest to UNFPA and the participating agencies that receive greater public support in 2001 compared to 1996, are:

• providing family planning education and services (45% vs. 33%);
• concentrating on improving the lives of women (19% vs. 12%)
• concentrating on improving the lives of children (39% vs. 30%)
• helping prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS (47% vs. 30%).

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Footnotes:

1. The question asked (Q1) was 'What would you say were the two or three problems facing Britain today? (Unprompted). In MORI's monthly tracking work for The Times health and education are the top concerns. This can be explained by the differences in question wording. The following questions are asked for The Times: 'What would you say is the most important issue facing Britain today?' and 'What do you see as other important issues facing Britain today?
2. UNFPA's definition of reproductive health services is: the combination of contraceptive advice or education, sterilisation for both sexes, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and advice on ante and post-natal services. The following form UNFPA's basic concerns: reproductive health and rights, teenage pregnancy/sexual activity, violence against women, gender/sex inequality/women's rights, abortion and HIV/AIDS.

Technical details

In Great Britain, MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,086 adults aged 16+ across 193 sampling points from 1- 5 February 2001. All interviews were conducted face-to-face in-home and data have been weighted to the known profile of the British population.

MORI also co-ordinated surveys of a similar magnitude in the other 12 countries covered by this research. The total sample size (inc. GB) is 13,350 adults in Europe.

This study is a repeat of one conducted in 1996 covering the same European countries. A full marked-up questionnaire of the British results is attached, showing comparisons with 1996 as well as the 13 country averages.