Citizenship Survey, 2009-10 – First Results

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Detailed reporting from the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey may not yet be complete (in particular, the topic report on race, religion and equalities is still outstanding), but initial results from all four quarters of the 2009-10 survey were released by the Department for Communities and Local Government on 22 July in respect of the questions relating to empowered and active communities, community cohesion, and prejudice and discrimination.  

The 58-page report (Cohesion Research, Statistical Release 12) will be found at the following URL (with the 16 tables also separately available as Excel files):

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurveyq4200910

The 2009-10 Citizenship Survey was conducted by Ipsos MORI and TNS-BMRB in England and Wales between April 2009 and March 2010. Face-to-face interviews took place with a representative core sample of 9,305 adults aged 16 and over. In addition, there were ethnic minority and Muslim booster samples (n = 5,280 and 1,555 respectively). However, the tables in this release mostly relate to England alone, and this is true of all those referred to below. We shall focus solely on those which contain breaks by religious affiliation (Christian denominations again being undifferentiated).

TABLE 2: Whereas 37% overall feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area, the figure rises to 40% among Sikhs, 46% among Muslims and 47% among Hindus. Similarly, while 20% overall consider they can influence decisions affecting Britain, the number stands at 35% for Hindus and Muslims, with 28% for Sikhs. It is not therefore the case that adherents of the major non-Christian faiths feel less empowered than Christians.

TABLE 3: 59% of all adults have participated in some form of civic engagement or formal volunteering at least once in the last year, a 3% decrease on 2008-09. The proportions are well below the norm for Muslims (45%) and Hindus (48%), and this is broadly true for each of the four constituent activity areas considered separately. Muslims’ engagement is 3 points lower than in 2008-09 and 6 points lower than in 2007-08, suggesting that there may be cause for concern about their level of integration.

TABLE 7: 85% of the whole sample consider their local area to be a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together, the range being from 80% for Buddhists and those with no religion to 90% for Muslims. The Muslim figure has steadily improved from 81% in 2005, as have the statistics for Christians (80% to 86%) and Sikhs (77% to 88%).

TABLE 9: 87% of all adults claim to identify strongly with Britain. This is also the figure for Muslims (as it was in 2008-09). This is 6% more than for Muslims who identify strongly with their neighbourhood, which is 5 points above the national average. Identification with Britain is weakest among Buddhists (75%, but a very small sub-sample) and those with no religion (84%).

TABLE 11: 80% of all respondents mix regularly (at least monthly) with people from different ethnic or religious backgrounds. This is least for Christians (77%) and greatest for Hindus (96%) and Muslims and Sikhs (94% each). Ethnicity is a major driver of these differences, 78% of whites mixing compared with 96% of ethnic minority groups. The statistics show little change from previous years. Breakdowns by sphere of mixing by religious affiliation are detailed in Table 12.

TABLE 13: 7% of the whole sample feel that racial or religious harassment is a very or fairly big problem in their local area. However, the figure rises to 13% for Hindus, 14% for Sikhs and 17% for Muslims, although in each instance the percentage is a little lower than in 2008-09. For Muslims it is 3% less than in 2007-08. Islamophobia, therefore, would appear to remain a sad fact of British life. Unfortunately, too few Jews were interviewed for them to be separately categorized (they are subsumed within ‘other religion’), so we cannot say from this survey whether Judeophobia is also an issue.

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London Bombings – Five Years On

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The fifth anniversary of the London bombings has been marked by a YouGov poll for The Sun newspaper. It was conducted among an online sample of 1,424 adult Britons aged 18 and over on 4-5 July. Headline findings were published in The Sun on 7 July, but the full data can be downloaded from:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-77-050710.pdf

In the five years since 7/7 25% feel that the threat of terrorism in Britain has increased, 53% that it has stayed the same and 17% that it has decreased. 76% rate further terrorist attacks on British soil as very or fairly likely.

Asked to think back to 7/7, and the reaction of British Muslims to the bombings, 33% recalled that it had made them feel more negative toward British Muslims, while for 60% it had made no difference. Conservative voters were twice as likely as Liberal Democrats (42% versus 20%) to have held adverse views, and the over-40s were seven points more negative than the under-40s (36% against 29%).

When questioned about the progress made by British Muslims to integrate into mainstream British society since 2005, four times as many feel that they have become less integrated than more integrated (43% compared with 10%). For 36% there has been no difference, and 12% are ‘don’t knows’. The expression of concern about less integration is most voiced by Conservatives (49%), residents of the Midlands and Wales (48%) and those aged 60 and over (47%).

This complaint about the lack of Muslim integration into British society finds echoes in other recent polls. In another YouGov survey in November 2009 21% considered that most Muslims in Britain led completely separately lives, with three-fifths saying many did so and just 13% believing most Muslims were integrated.

Similarly, interviewed by ICM in January 2008 about whether the Muslim community in Britain needed to do more to integrate, 56% agreed, with 24% deeming there had been sufficient integration and 9% too much.

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Attitudes to Muslims: Round-Up of Recent YouGov Polls

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Founded only in 2000, YouGov has rapidly become one of the best-known polling companies in contemporary Britain. It operates mainly via online interviews among a panel of more than 250,000 adults aged 18 and over.

Although YouGov has undertaken relatively few religion-specific surveys, relevant questions often lie buried among some of its more general studies. The following data on attitudes to Islam and Muslims have been taken from the tabulations of recent polls posted at:

http://www.yougov.co.uk/corporate/archives/press-archives-intro.asp

  • Only 13% of all adults feel that most Muslims are integrated into British society, 60% maintaining that many lead completely separate lives and a further 21% that most lead completely separate lives (fieldwork 12-13 November 2009, n= 2,026)
  • 80% of all adults support Government’s recent decision to ban the radical group Islam4UK, which was planning to hold a march through Wootton Bassett in protest at the war in Afghanistan, while 14% disagree, arguing that freedom of speech is more important (fieldwork 14-15 January 2010, n= 2,033)
  • 81% of all adults consider that Anjem Choudary, Islam4UK’s spokesperson, is cynically abusing the benefits system by claiming £25,000 a year in benefits, despite being a qualified lawyer (fieldwork 14-15 January 2010, n= 2,033)
  • 32% of all adults are worried that they and their immediate family might be victims of an attack by Islamic terrorists in Britain, whereas 64% are not concerned (fieldwork 5-7 January 2010, n= 10,344)
  • 62% of all adults are convinced that Islamic terrorism is a slightly or much bigger problem for Britain than other Western countries, with 29% thinking it is no worse a problem (fieldwork 5-7 January 2010, n= 10,344)
  • Of adults believing Islamic terrorism to be a worse problem for Britain, 38% attribute this to Britain’s relationship with the USA, 35% to the failure to punish or expel Islamic radicals who preach violence, and 24% to the number of Muslim immigrants in Britain (fieldwork 5-7 January 2010, n= 10,344)
  • 42% of young people aged 14-25 believe that Muslims often suffer unfair discrimination in Britain, as against 20% thinking this to be true of the Jews, the other religious group enquired about – the numbers feeling they received unfair advantage were 21% and 5% respectively (fieldwork 18-25 November 2009, n= 3,994)
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