YouGov@Cambridge on Religion

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Clive D. Field

On 30 April last, we reported on the virtual launch of YouGov@Cambridge (a collaboration between pollsters YouGov and the University of Cambridge’s Department of Politics and International Studies) and on the interim results from the first annual YouGov@Cambridge census of British life and attitudes. See:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=1223

Between 4 and 7 September, in advance of a two-day physical launch in Cambridge on 8-9 September, YouGov@Cambridge released final tables on the 2011 census, the fieldwork for which extended from 13 April to 20 May 2011 and involved online interviews with a representative sample of 64,303 adult Britons aged 18 and over (although most questions were put to sub-samples).

The new tables included the results for a module on religion, which had not featured in the interim release, and this post summarizes some of the main findings. For the full data, go to:

http://www.yougov.polis.cam.ac.uk/sites/yougov.polis.cam.ac.uk/files/Religion.pdf

  • 40% of adults professed no religion, 55% were Christian and 5% of other faiths – age made a major difference, with only 38% of the 18-34s being Christian and 53% having no religion, whereas for the over-55s the figures were 70% and 26% respectively 
  • 74% of respondents had been brought up in some religion (including 70% as Christians, implying a net 15% leakage from Christianity over time) and 25% not, the latter figure rising to 39% among the 18-34s 
  • 35% described themselves as very or fairly religious and 63% as not very or not at all religious – there were no big variations by demographics (even by age), but Londoners (41%) did stand out as being disproportionately religious, doubtless reflecting the concentration of ethnic minorities in the capital 
  • 34% believed in a personal God or gods (ranging from 28% among the 18-34s to 42% of over-55s), 10% in some higher spiritual power, 19% in neither, with 29% unsure or agnostic 
  • 11% of respondents claimed to attend a religious service once a month or more, 27% less often, and 59% never – non-attendance was higher among the young (62% for the 18-34s) than the old (54% for the over-55s) and among manual workers (62%) than non-manuals (56%), while London had the best figure for monthly or more attendance (16%) 
  • 16% claimed to pray daily, 12% several times a week, 4% once a week, 7% several times a month, 4% once a month, 24% less often, and 29% never – men (34%) were more likely not to pray at all than women (24%) 
  • 79% agreed and 11% disagreed that religion is a cause of much misery and conflict in the world today 
  • 72% agreed and 15% disagreed that religion is used as an excuse for bigotry and intolerance, with a high of 81% in Scotland where sectarianism has often been rife 
  • 35% agreed and 45% disagreed that religion is a force for good in the world, dissentients being more numerous among men (50%) than women (41%) 
  • 78% (82% of the over-55s) agreed and 12% disagreed that religion should be a private matter and had no place in politics 
  • 16% agreed and 70% disagreed that Christians and the Church should have more influence over politics in the country – only among the over-55s did the proportion in favour of the proposition scrape above one-fifth 
  • 61% agreed and 18% disagreed that organized religion is in terminal decline in the UK – the over-55s (67%) were most prone to agree and Londoners (21%) to disagree 
  • 40% agreed and 40% disagreed that the decline of organized religion had made Britain a worse place – the over-55s (54%) were twice as likely to agree as the 18-34s (27%) 
  • 51% (57% in Scotland) agreed and 32% (37% among men) disagreed that all religions are equally valid 
  • 34% agreed and 49% disagreed that some religions are better than others, men (39%), the over-55s (38%), and Londoners (38%) being disproportionately likely to agree 
  • 49% agreed and 29% disagreed that it is good for children to be brought up within a religion – among the 18-34s opinion divided at 36% each (whereas for the over-55s 64% agreed and 22% disagreed) 
  • 40% agreed (rising to 46% of men and 44% of 18-34s) and 39% disagreed that religion is incompatible with modern scientific knowledge 
  • 29% agreed and 54% disagreed that there are some things in life which only religion can explain, the over-55s (35%) placing more trust in religion than the 18-34s (24%)

All in all, these data point to a society in which religion is increasingly in retreat and nominal. With the principal exception of the older age groups, many of those who claim some religious allegiance fail to underpin it by a belief in God or to translate it into regular prayer or attendance at a place of worship. People in general are more inclined to see the negative than the positive aspects of religion, and they certainly want to keep it well out of the political arena.

Posted in Attitudes towards Religion, church attendance, Religion and Politics, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

9/11 – Ten Years On

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Today is the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the terror attacks on the United States, usually credited to al-Qaeda, in which almost 3,000 people perished. The legacy of that day continues to be felt in numerous ways, including – in Britain – in persisting negative attitudes to Islam and Muslims.

This is borne out in a special ‘9/11 – ten years on’ survey undertaken by YouGov on 6 and 7 September 2011 among an online sample of 1,947 adult Britons aged 18 and over. The full data tabulations are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-yougov-911tenyearson-090911.pdf

Asked about their perceptions of the relationship of British Muslims with terrorism, 15% of respondents claimed that a large proportion of British Muslims felt no sense of loyalty to this country and were prepared to condone or even carry out terrorist acts. This was only three points down on the figure for 22-24 August 2006, one year after 7/7, the terrorist attacks on London’s transport network.

The number was higher among Conservative voters (18%) than Liberal Democrats (7%), men (16%) than women (13%), the over-40s (16%) than the under-25s (11%), manual workers (18%) than non-manuals (12%), with a regional peak of 18% in the Midlands and Wales.

A further 63% acknowledged that, while the great majority of British Muslims were peaceful and law-abiding, there was a dangerous minority who exhibited disloyalty and sympathy for terrorism. Just 17% stated that practically all British Muslims were peaceful and law-abiding who deplored acts of terrorism. 5% expressed no opinion.

Given these perceptions, it is unsurprising that 63% of adults (a mere 2% less than in 2006) wished to see Britain’s security services focus their intelligence-gathering and terrorism-prevention efforts on Muslims living in or seeking to enter this country, on the grounds that, although most Muslims were not terrorists most terrorists threatening Britain were Muslim. This view was held by three-quarters of the over-60s and Conservative voters.

Moreover, a slight majority (51%, compared with 53% in 2006) considered that Islam itself – as distinct from Islamic fundamentalist groups – posed a major or some threat to Western liberal democracy, rising to 65% of Conservatives and 60% of the over-60s. Only 13% thought that Islam posed no threat at all.

It is a measure of Britons’ continuing fears of ‘Islamic terrorism’ that, despite the current Coalition Government’s military assistance to the Libyan rebels who have all but toppled the oppressive regime of Colonel Gadaffi, 49% still justify the policy of the previous Labour administration of exchanging security information on Islamic extremism and al-Qaeda with Gadaffi. Fewer than one-quarter are critical of the policy.

This last finding emerges from a separate YouGov survey for today’s Sunday Times, in which 2,724 British adults were interviewed online on 8 and 9 September 2011. Detailed results have been posted at:   

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-09-110911.pdf

Posted in Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Terrorist Threats

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Despite renewed media preoccupation with far-right organizations in Britain, following revelations of links between them and Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the recent outrages in Norway, many Britons still view ‘Islamic terrorism’ as the greater problem, even though two-thirds also see the far right as a serious or minor threat.

This is one of the findings from a YouGov poll for today’s edition of The Sunday Times, in which 2,529 British adults aged 18 and over were interviewed online on 28 and 29 July 2011. The data tables are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-29-310711.pdf

19% of respondents believed that the police and security services should devote more resources than currently to Islamic terrorism, and less to other extremists. Men (25%) were more likely to take this view than women (14%), and Conservative voters (23%) more than Liberal Democrats (14%).

Just 8% wanted resources switched from countering Islamic terrorism towards other extremists, rising to 15% among the 18-24s and 13% with Liberal Democrats. 50% contended that the police and security services were getting the balance about right, and 23% were unsure what to think.

Posted in Religion and Politics, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Religious Education and the English Baccalaureate

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The campaign (RE.ACT) to persuade the Coalition Government to change its mind about excluding GCSE Religious Education (RE) from the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) in secondary schools hotted up on 24 June with the simultaneous publication of two new surveys accompanied by rather alarmist press releases.

The first was a report by the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE), based on an online (Survey Monkey) poll of RE teachers in 1,918 schools over a 10-day period commencing 22 May 2011. These schools represented 53% of the maintained secondary school sector in England.

The report was launched with a joint release by NATRE and the Religious Education Council of England and Wales with the key message that ‘Religious education in schools is being killed off’. Government’s ‘rapidly implemented plans to shake up the educational system are set to shake out RE. This may not be deliberate but is the inevitable unintended consequence of other actions.’

Informing these headlines was the fact that, according to the NATRE survey, 20% of schools were already failing to meet the legal requirement to provide RE for all pupils at Key Stage 4, with 24% expecting to fall short in 2011/12. Even at Key Stage 3 9% of schools did not meet the obligation. Neither were faith schools immune from non-compliance.

Moreover, 32% of schools had experienced a drop in GCSE entries for 2011/12 in the full RE course and 22% in the short course, the EBacc being the single commonest reason cited for the decline.  More than one-quarter of academy, community and grammar schools also anticipated specialist RE staff reductions for 2011/12.

The NATRE report is available at:

http://www.retoday.org.uk/media/display/NATRE_EBacc_Survey2_report_final.pdf

The second study was a ComRes poll, commissioned by Premier Christian Media Group (which has organized a petition of over 140,000 signatures to press for the inclusion of RE in the EBacc), and undertaken among an online sample of 2,005 Britons aged 18 and over on 10-12 June 2011.

The press release accompanying the results was entitled ‘Teach young people about other religions or risk religious extremism, warns new public poll’. This was a reference to the findings that:

  • 81% of respondents believed that, without education, people become intolerant of different cultures and religions;
  • 77% were convinced that knowledge of different religions helped promote community cohesion;
  • 71% predicted that British society would become more divided, unless children and young people are taught about different cultures and religions; and
  • 57% envisaged such teaching would reduce extremism and fundamentalism in Britain

Additionally, 88% of the sample agreed that learning about different cultures and faiths in Britain and the rest of the world is important, and 84% that it contributed to an understanding of modern society. 68% judged that children and young people did not know enough about religions and cultures other than their own. 

The full computer tabulations for the ComRes poll, with a range of breaks (gender, age, social grade, region, employment sector, knowledge of world religions, level of RE at school), can be downloaded from:

http://www.comres.co.uk/premierextremismpoll24jun11.aspx

It could be argued that these high values in favour of RE are somewhat misleading in that, in the ComRes poll, RE was not in contention with other curriculum subjects. It is therefore instructive to examine the ComRes outcomes alongside a survey by YouGov among 1,374 Britons aged 18 and over, interviewed online on 15-16 June 2011.

Although this did not expressly mention the EBacc, it did ask which of twenty GCSE subjects should count towards the construction of school performance league tables. RE came only sixteenth in the rank order, scoring 21%, with just Latin, media studies, drama and dance below it.

The subjects topping the YouGov list were mathematics, English, science, modern languages, and history/geography – precisely the disciplines included in the EBacc. So perhaps public support for school RE is not quite so strong as the RE lobbyists would wish to be the case? The YouGov statistics can be found at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-yougov-gcses-240611.pdf

This YouGov poll was a replication of an earlier one, conducted on 11-12 January 2011, which ranked RE as the fifteenth most important GCSE subject in the construction of school league tables, with 22% support. See our coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=833

Posted in Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gay Pride

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Individuals who profess no religion take somewhat more pride in how Britain treats gay people than do those with a faith, according to a newly-released survey by YouGov, in which 2,086 adults aged 18 and over were interviewed online on 4-9 May 2011.

Whereas 51% of the religionless agreed with this statement, the proportion fell to 47% for Anglicans, 45% for Roman Catholics, 37% for the mainline Free Churches, and 45% for non-Christians, perhaps suggesting a lingering homophobia on the part of some believers.

The number not proud of Britain’s treatment of gays was 13% overall, peaking at 19% for Presbyterians, Methodists and Muslims. However, cell sizes for these groups were small. That left two-fifths who were neutral on the subject, possibly a little confused by the slightly ambiguous wording of the question.

The survey results are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-demos-patriotism-ge_280611.pdf

Posted in Survey news | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Membership of Groups

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Clive D. Field

6% of adult Britons claim to belong to a ‘church group or bible study’, according to a YouGov poll released today, and conducted online among a sample of 2,451 adult Britons on 16 and 17 June 2011 on behalf of The Sunday Times. The full results are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-17-190611.pdf

Respondents were asked whether they were members of twenty groups or organizations, including the three main political parties. 51% said they belonged to none of them. Trade unions and gyms topped the list (at 12% each), followed by the National Trust (10%), with church groups in fourth position, just ahead of football clubs (5%).

Membership of church groups never reached double figures among any demographic sub-group. The highest (9%) was in Scotland, with public sector employees and current Liberal Democrat voters on 8%, and the 18-24s, over-60s and non-manual workers on 7% each. The smallest numbers were found among the 25-39s (3%), manual workers (4%) and private sector workers (4%).

The meaning of membership was not defined in the question, and ‘church group or bible study’ implies a Christian basis. Also, this type of enquiry tends to encourage exaggeration, with people replying aspirationally. For example, 10% of adults claiming membership of the National Trust points to the organization having 4.7 million members, whereas the reality (in the last National Trust annual report) is exactly a million less.

At the same time, claimed membership of church groups in this poll is lower than Peter Brierley’s estimates of church membership for 2010, 11% of the population aged 15 and over in the UK (9% in England and Wales and 18% in Scotland). However, his statistics incorporate mass attendance for Roman Catholics who have no concept of membership.

Brierley’s data have yet to be published in full. They will appear in his forthcoming book Church Statistics, which we will cover on BRIN when it is published. Meanwhile, there are previews of his figures in his articles in FutureFirst, No. 15, June 2011, pp. 1, 4 and Church of England Newspaper, 10 June 2011, p. 17.

The YouGov poll is naturally relevant within the context of the long-standing counter-assertion to the secularization thesis, that the undisputed decline in church membership and attendance simply mirrors a more general retreat from association and a privatization of society as a whole.

Posted in Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Turbulent Priest?

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The nation is split down the middle about whether senior clergy should comment on political issues, according to a new survey. This follows the Archbishop of Canterbury’s guest-editorship of last week’s issue of the left-leaning New Statesman magazine, which provided Rowan Williams with a platform to critique the Coalition Government’s policies.

The topic is one of several covered in YouGov’s latest weekly poll for The Sunday Times, in which a representative sample of 2,728 adult Britons aged 18 and over was interviewed online on 9 and 10 June 2011. The relevant data appear on page 9 of the tables at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-10-120611.pdf

45% of respondents considered it right for senior clerics to intervene in political debates and 44% disagreed. There was a sharp split on party political lines. Whereas 69% of current Conservative voters opposed clerical intervention, 64% of Labour supporters endorsed it, with Liberal Democrats divided on 47% for each position. Age also made some difference, approval of senior clerical involvement in politics rising from 36% among the 18-24s to 49% among the over-40s.

More specifically, interviewees were asked what they thought about the Archbishop’s criticism of the Government for introducing ‘radical, long-term policies for which no one voted’ in the 2010 general election and which were instilling ‘fear’ with the public. 47% agreed with his assessment while 35% disagreed and 18% expressed no opinion.

On this question the party political gulf was even wider. 75% of current Conservative supporters disagreed with the Archbishop and 81% of Labour voters sided with him. Liberal Democrats divided 39% for and 45% against, notwithstanding that the Liberal Democrats are in coalition with the Conservatives in Government, and that the policies under criticism are (supposedly) jointly owned by them. Among those who voted Liberal Democrat in 2010 (three times as many who incline to the Liberal Democrats now) 56% agreed with Williams.

The other notable demographic was the above average support for the Archbishop’s views among residents of Northern England (56%) and Scotland (53%). This presumably manifests a perception that these parts of the nation are being particularly adversely affected by the Government policies which Williams was attacking.

For Conservatives, the Archbishop’s entry on the political stage (by no means his first – he recently voiced his discomfort about the killing by United States special forces of the unarmed Osama bin Laden) has doubtless brought back unwelcome memories of Robert Runcie’s clashes with Margaret Thatcher’s administration during the 1980s. For Labour supporters the appearance of Williams’s article in the New Statesman has provided them with an unexpected opportunity to land a punch on the Coalition Government.      

It would naturally be interesting to see how political opinion would play out were the boot to be on the other foot, an Archbishop of Canterbury criticizing the policies of a Labour Government!

Posted in Religion and Politics, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Naughty Vicar Syndrome

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Local clergy come a close second to politicians in meriting media exposure for cheating on their spouse, according to a new survey commissioned by The Sunday Times in the wake of the controversy surrounding superinjunctions and the freedom of the press.

Fieldwork was conducted online by YouGov on 26 and 27 May 2011 among a representative sample of 2,723 Britons aged 18 and over. The detailed results from the poll are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-27-290511.pdf

Asked whether it would be legitimate for the press to report on cases where ten categories of individual had been unfaithful to their spouse, affirmative replies were as follows:

  • a senior politician – 71%
  • a backbench politician – 65%
  • a local clergyman – 64%
  • a local councillor – 62%
  • a top professional footballer – 59%
  • a senior executive of a major corporation – 58%
  • a well-known actor – 56%
  • a television presenter – 55%
  • a former reality TV star – 51%
  • a normal member of the public – 30%

Nearly three times as many respondents wanted to see local clergy exposed in the media as opted to keep the matter private (23%), with 13% unsure what to think. The clamour for publicity about clergy was notably high among Conservative voters (71%) and the over-60s (70%).

Religious professionals may no longer command the sort of respect in the community which they once did, but it seems that we generally still expect them to be exemplary in their moral behaviour and feel entitled to know about their falls from grace.

Posted in Religion in public debate, Religion in the Press, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Amending the Act of Settlement

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Last Friday’s royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, has rekindled public debate on Britain’s monarchical succession laws.

Attention has mostly focused on the primogeniture rule, a throw-back to feudal times, whereby the British throne is inherited by the eldest son of the monarch, regardless of whether there is a first-born female child.

However, a YouGov poll for today’s The Sunday Times also enquired about (without mentioning it explicitly by name) the Act of Settlement 1701, which bars Roman Catholics, or persons married to a Catholic, from acceding to the throne.

The survey was conducted online on 28 and 29 April 2011 among a representative sample of 2,280 Britons aged 18 and over. The detailed results appear on p. 10 of the data tables at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/st20110501.pdf

43% of respondents wanted to see the law amended to permit a Catholic to ascend the throne, while 36% favoured the status quo and 21% expressed no opinion on the subject.

Pressure for change was strongest among current Labour voters (51%) and Scots (52%), with opposition coming disproportionately from Conservatives (49%) and the over-60s (44%).

These figures are superficially in marked contrast to those recorded in another recent YouGov study, for Prospect magazine on 1-2 February 2011, which employed somewhat different question-wording in that a) it spoke only of a law prohibiting a monarch from marrying a Catholic and b) it sought views on the repeal (as distinct from amendment) of that law.

In the Prospect poll 71% of Britons elected for repeal against 16% wanting the law to stay as it is, a reforming margin of +55% compared with just +7% in The Sunday Times investigation. See our earlier coverage at: http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=1131

The difference between the two surveys might be explained in terms of the fact that in April there was a clear statement that the prospective monarch was a Roman Catholic, whereas in February there was no assumption that the monarch was necessarily a Catholic him/herself, only that he/she might wish to marry a Catholic.

Some might gloss these widely varying data as implying some kind of lingering anti-Catholic undercurrent in British society, others as recognition by the public of the monarch’s constitutional role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, thereby precluding a Catholic from sitting on the throne.

To add to the complexity, an Ipsos MORI poll for The Tablet on 20-26 August 2010 found 44% of Britons thinking it wrong that members of the royal family who are or have been married to a Catholic should have to give up their right to become king or queen. 24% took the opposite line and the remainder were neutral or expressed no view. See: http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=524

All in all, this is a good example of just how difficult it can be to measure popular attitudes to anything connected with religion, and how careful one must be to unpack the question-wording.

But will the public’s views, whatever they are, be heeded? Both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have declared themselves as open to reform of the laws of monarchical succession, albeit the former’s support seems muted, more at the level of ‘in principle’, with realism about the difficulties of securing Commonwealth-wide approval. Already the Canadian authorities have indicated that they see the change as a low priority.

As for the Roman Catholic Church, there appears to be remarkably little pressure from the English and Welsh hierarchy to sweep away this 300-year-old statute against Catholic royals. The Scottish bishops seem keener for the Government to act, doubtless setting the issue within the context of a strong tradition of sectarianism in Scotland, which surfaced again recently in the Celtic parcel bombs affair.

Posted in Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Doing God in Politics

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

‘We don’t do God’ was a famous intervention by Alastair Campbell, press secretary to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, when trying to protect his boss from an interviewer’s questioning about Blair’s Christian beliefs.

That separation of religion and politics is apparently the way the electorate likes things to be, according to a newly-released YouGov survey for the Policy Exchange think-tank. Fieldwork was conducted online on 10-12 March 2011 among 2,407 adult Britons.

Asked which two or three from a list of eleven values they most wanted a political party to reflect, a mere 3% chose religious faith, which came bottom. No more than 5% in any demographic sub-group picked this option, this figure being recorded by Conservative voters in 2010 and residents of the Midlands and Wales.

Economic responsibility topped the scales at 59%, followed by fairness (50%), family values (32%), traditional values (29%), equality (21%), freedom (20%), patriotism (17%), tolerance and diversity (14%), community (12%), and environmentalism (11%).

The data table will be found at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-fairness-policyexchange260411.pdf

Posted in Religion and Politics, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment