British Social Attitudes Survey

The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is an annual statistical survey conducted in Great Britain by National Centre for Social Research since 1983.[1] The BSA involves in-depth interviews with over 3,300 respondents, selected using random probability sampling,[2] focused on topics including newspaper readership, political parties and trust, public expenditure, welfare benefits, health care, childcare, poverty, the labour market and the workplace, education, charitable giving, the countryside, transport and the environment, the European Union, economic prospects, race, religion, civil liberties, immigration, sentencing and prisons, fear of crime and the portrayal of sex and violence in the media.[3] The survey is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, government departments, quasi-governmental bodies and other grant-giving organisations. The BSA was not conducted in 1988 and 1992, when funding was devoted instead to studies of voting behaviour and political attitudes in the British Election Study.[1] The King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust stepped in when the government stopped funding the poll.[4]

Findings

Abortion
Attitudes towards abortion, 1983–2016.

The proportion of people who believe abortion should be allowed if a woman does not want a child has increased gradually during the period 1983–2016, from 40% in 1983 to 72% in 2016. Similarly an increasing number of people believe abortion should be allowed if a couple cannot afford a child, which reached a high of 68% in 2016. Over 90% of people have consistently believed that abortion is acceptable if the pregnancy is a result of rape.[5]

Abortion should be allowed if a woman does not want a child (1983-2016)
1983 1985 1986 1987 1989 1990 1994 1995 1998 2004 2005 2007 2008 2012 2016
40% 51% 45% 55% 52% 58% 57% 63% 57% 63% 65% 68% 64% 64% 72%
Abortion should be allowed if a woman is pregnant as a result of rape (1983-2012)
1983 1985 1986 1987 1989 1990 1994 1995 1998 2004 2005 2007 2008 2012 2016
92% 93% 93% 96% 94% 93% 95% 92% 94% 94% n/a n/a n/a 93% n/a
Abortion should be allowed if a couple cannot afford a child (1983-2016)
1983 1985 1986 1987 1989 1990 1994 1995 1998 2004 2005 2007 2008 2012 2016
52% 61% 53% 60% 60% 64% 64% 63% 60% 61% 56% 60% 57% 67% 68%

Capital punishment
"For some crimes, the death penalty is the most appropriate sentence"

Support for the death penalty has gradually decreased from 75% in 1986 to 43% in 2019. From 2014 onwards, less than half of people supported the use of capital punishment.[5]

For some crimes, the death penalty is the most appropriate sentence: Strongly agree/Agree (1986-2019)
1986 1987 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
75% 74% 75% 70% 59% 74% 69% 67% 66% 60% 58% 59% 53% 56% 59% 55%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
59% 58% 57% 60% 56% 55% 57% 56% 55% 49% 48% 46% 46% 46% 43% n/a

Income redistribution
Government should redistribute income to those less well off: Strongly agree/Agree (1986-2019)
1986 1987 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
44% 46% 51% 50% 50% 45% 52% 48% 44% 39% 37% 39% 38% 40% 43% 32%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
33% 34% 33% 39% 37% 36% 38% 42% 43% 40% 45% 43% 43% 43% 40% n/a

Wealth distribution
Ordinary working people do not get a fair share of the nation's wealth: Strongly agree/Agree (1986-2019)
1986 1987 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
66% 65% 66% 66% 69% 62% n/a 68% 66% 65% 62% 63% 61% 64% 62% 55%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
56% 56% 60% 61% 61% 57% 59% 62% 60% 61% 60% 60% 62% 63% 59% n/a

Same-sex relationships
Attitudes towards same-sex relationships, 1986–2012.

17% of people believed same-sex relationships were 'not wrong at all' in 1983 and the proportion of people holding this view reached a low of 11% in 1987 during the height of the AIDS pandemic. An increasing number of people were comfortable with same-sex relationships during the period 1989-2017 and as of 2018 66% of people do not consider same-sex relationships to be 'wrong at all'.[6]

Same-sex relationships are 'not wrong at all' (1983-2018)
1983 1984 1985 1987 1989 1990 1993 1995 1998 1999 2000
17% 16% 12% 11% 14% 15% 18% 22% 23% 27% 34%
2003 2005 2006 2007 2010 2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018
37% 37% 38% 39% 45% 47% 57% 59% 64% 68% 66%

Transgender rights

Attitudes towards transgender people were first examined in the 2016 report, which found that 49% of people view prejudice against transgender people as 'always wrong', compared with 6% who believe it is 'rarely or never wrong'. 34% of people believed prejudice against transgender people is only 'mostly' or 'sometimes' wrong.[6]

Social security
"Benefits for unemployed people are too low and cause hardship"

From 1983 until the late 1990s, most people thought that benefits for the unemployed were too low and caused hardship. Following the election of the Labour government in 1997, there was a sharp decline in this view and the majority of people now believed that unemployment benefit was too high until 2016, when an increasing number of people began to consider unemployment benefits as too low and the proportion of people holding this view reached a twenty five year high of 51% in 2020.[7]

Benefits for unemployed people are too low and cause hardship (1983-2020)
1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
46% 49% 44% 44% 51% 52% 50% 53% 55% 53% 51% 48% 46% 29% 33% 40% 37% 29%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
34% 23% 26% 23% 26% 21% 29% 23% 19% 22% 22% 27% 24% 28% 27% 35% 36% 51%

See also

References
  1. "British Social Attitudes Survey catalogue page]". UK Data Service. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  2. "British Social Attitudes". National Centre for Social Research. September 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  3. 30th British Social Attitudes report, NatCen Social Research, retrieved 8 November 2013
  4. "View grows that NHS 'must live within its means' as satisfaction plummets". Health Service Journal. 30 March 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  5. "British Social Attitudes Information System". National Centre for Social Research. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  6. "BSA 36 – Relationships and gender identity" (PDF). National Centre for Social Research.
  7. "British Social Attitudes 38 – New values, new divides?" (PDF). National Centre for Social Research. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
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