August YouGov Polls on Political Issues

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Herewith a round-up of recent YouGov polls touching on the interaction of religion and politics.

‘Doing God’

The majority of Britons are keen to keep religion apart from politics, according to a study published on 13 September 2012. 81% affirmed that religious practice is a private matter, which should be separated from British politico-economic life; 76% agreed that religious leaders should not influence how people vote in elections; 71% disagreed that religious leaders should have influence over the decisions of Government; 66% disagreed that politicians who did not share respondents’ own religious beliefs should not run for public office; and 65% disagreed that Britain would be a better place if more religious leaders held public office. Fewer than one in ten took the opposite stance on all these measures, with the remainder neutral or undecided, albeit as many as 16% wanted Christianity to play a greater role in British politics. Asked how much influence religion already has in British politics, 53% opted for the mid-positions (3-6) on a scale of 0-10, with 10% uncertain. Doubtless, the results were informed by the fact that 53% of the sample (including 69% of 18-24s) did not regard themselves as belonging to any particular religion.

Source: YouGov survey for YouGov@Cambridge in which 2,027 adult Britons were interviewed online between 10 and 19 August 2012. Data tables available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/md6rf2qvws/Reputation%20UK%20Report_21-Aug-2012_F.pdf

The survey was also conducted in the United States, France, Germany, the Middle East and North Africa, Pakistan and China. The multinational topline data are at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/yf07oalgnu/Reputation%20x-country%20Report_24-Aug-2012_F.pdf

Islamophobia

Political parties of the far right are likely to take comfort from a poll released on 17 September 2012 which suggested that Islamophobia is a potential vote-winner. As many as 37% of electors indicated that they were more likely to vote for a party that promised to reduce the number of Muslims and the presence of Islam in British society, compared with 23% who said that they would be less likely to vote for a party pursuing such an agenda and 31% that it would make no difference. Those more likely to vote for a party under these circumstances were especially numerous among Conservatives (50%), the over-60s (49%), manual workers (45%), and Northerners (42%). Those less likely to vote for such a party were concentrated among Liberal Democrats (52%), the 18-24s (42%), Scots (33%), the 25-39s (32%), Londoners (31%), and non-manual workers (30%).

Source: YouGov survey for the Extremis Project (Matthew Goodwin) in which 1,725 adult Britons were interviewed online between 19 and 20 August 2012. Data tables available at:

http://extremisproject.org/2012/09/extremis-projectyougov-data-and-results/

Sunday Trading after the Olympic and Paralympic Games (1)

44% of Britons favour the permanent abolition of the legislative restrictions on the Sunday trading hours of large shops, which were temporarily suspended for the eight weeks around the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This would allow such shops to open for as long as they choose. 37% wanted to see the normal restrictions (a maximum of six hours between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.) reactivated, while 11% argued for an even tighter regime, with a total ban on large stores opening on Sundays. Advocates of permanent abolition were particularly to be found in Scotland (66%), to which the law does not apply, in any case. The over-60s (17%) most desired a return to the ‘traditional Sunday’, pre-dating the Sunday Trading Act 1994, a time when large stores ordinarily could not open at all.

Source: YouGov survey for The Sunday Times in which 1,731 adult Britons were interviewed online between 23 and 24 August 2012. Data tables available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/sdx6k0u8c5/YG-Archives-Pol-ST-results-24-260812.pdf

Sunday Trading after the Olympic and Paralympic Games (2)

A similar number (45%) to the previous poll supported the permanent extension of Sunday trading hours after the summer Games, with 83% of them backing wholly unrestricted hours. 24% considered that such a move would boost the ailing UK economy, and 22% anticipated that they would shop more on Sunday if hours are liberalized. At the same time, although 82% were aware of the temporary relaxation in opening hours during the Games, only 24% of these overall (rising to 39% of 18-34s) had actually taken advantage of the change. 39% believed that the Government will eventually legislate to relax Sunday trading laws. 16% opposed shops being allowed to open at all on Sundays.

Source: YouGov survey for business law firm DWF in which 2,045 adult Britons were interviewed online between 24 and 27 August 2012. Summary findings only available in DWF press release of 7 September 2012 at:

http://www.dwf.co.uk/insight/dwf-press/shoppers-back-longer-sunday-hours

 

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British Social Attitudes, 2011

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Clive D. Field

The twenty-ninth report from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey was published by NatCen Social Research on 17 September 2012, less than a year after the completion of the fieldwork (June-November 2011) on which it is based.

As usual, the 2011 BSA was undertaken through a combination of face-to-face interviews and self-completion questionnaires with adult Britons aged 18 and over. The full sample comprised 3,311 individuals, albeit some questions were put only to sub-samples.

Edited by Alison Park, Elizabeth Clery, John Curtice, Miranda Phillips and David Utting, the book-length report on British Social Attitudes, 29 is available for free download from:

http://www.bsa-29.natcen.ac.uk/media/13421/bsa29_full_report.pdf

The annotated questionnaire for the survey can be found at:

http://www.bsa-29.natcen.ac.uk/media/11241/annotated_questionnaire_2011.pdf

Although the dataset is not yet available through the Economic and Social Data Service, the 2011 data have already been loaded into the British Social Attitudes Information System, through whose website weighted results for each question can be viewed, disaggregated by demographics. Go to:

http://www.britsocat.com/Home

There was no special module on religion in the 2011 survey, but several questions of potential interest to BRIN users were included.

Asked whether they regarded themselves as belonging to any particular religion, 44% of adults replied in the negative. This was a lower proportion than in 2010 (50%) but much higher than when the question had first been put in 1983 (31%). It also represented a big increase on the 17% of 2011 interviewees who had not been brought up in any religion, suggesting that very many relinquish faith on transition to adulthood.

The number professing no religion varied substantially by age, peaking among the 18-24s (65%) and falling steadily to 18% among the over-75s. The age differential also largely explains the high of 57% for the never married and the low of 25% for the widowed. Gender was likewise significant, with 51% of men against 39% of women having no faith.

Regionally, Wales (historically a heartland of Nonconformity) reported the greatest incidence of irreligion (58%) and Greater London (formerly renowned for its poor religious allegiance but now boosted by religiously-minded immigrants) one of the lowest (42%). The Midlands, another centre of immigration, recorded 41%.

Very regular (once a week or more) attendance at religious services (other than for rites of passage) was claimed by 14%, almost certainly an exaggeration, while 58% said that they never attended public worship, just a modest rise on 53% in 1991. The picture is complicated by the fact that this question was apparently answered by very many, albeit not all, of those professing no religion.

In fact, 13% of the irreligious stated that they sometimes attended religious services. Anglicans had the highest total non-attendance (56%), with Roman Catholics on 28%, other Christians on 39%, and non-Christians on 29%. Men (65%) were more likely never to attend than women (54%). Variation by age cohort was between 54% and 65%, by marital status between 56% and 64%, and by region between 54% and 65%.

Other questions explored attitudes to Muslims. In the main (face-to-face) questionnaire, randomly-chosen sub-samples were asked for their views on three groups of migrants to Britain (labour migrants, student migrants, and family reunion migrants) originating from various geographical contexts, one of them being ‘Muslim countries like Pakistan’. 

An analysis of the results is given in the chapter on immigration (pp. 26-44) by Robert Ford, Gareth Morrell and Anthony Heath, which appears in British Social Attitudes, 29, especially on pp. 35-40. In respect of Muslims, public opinion was found to be more nuanced than has usually been assumed yet there remained some underlying prejudice.

Regarding labour migration, while 61% said that Muslim professionals filling jobs was good for Britain, only 17% said the same about unskilled Muslim labourers and even fewer (10%) about the same group searching for work. This professional/unskilled split was generic, but net support for Muslim migrants still tended to be less than from East Europe. Indeed, on several measures of the economic and cultural impact of migration there was a clear net preference for East Europeans over Muslims.

A similar trend was evident for student migration. Although the public was much more well-disposed to student migrants in general with good grades than bad grades, regardless of region of origin, net support for students with good grades from Muslim countries was smaller than from the other three geographical clusters, and net opposition to student migrants with bad grades was slightly higher for those from Muslim countries than West Europe or East Asia.

The pattern was repeated for family reunion migration, with which the public is unhappy overall. At 57%, net opposition to migrants from Muslim countries bringing their family to live in Britain for three years was very much greater than for family reunion migration from West Europe. The disparity remained when the period of settlement was extended to ten years, albeit family reunion migration from Africa was then perceived somewhat more negatively than from Muslim countries. 

Version C of the self-completion questionnaire, put to one-third of the sample, explored another dimension of anti-Muslim prejudice, asking respondents how comfortable they would be if a close relative married or otherwise entered into a relationship with a person who grew up in a Muslim country. Answers were recorded on a scale running from 0 to 10.

23% of respondents were very uncomfortable (0 or 1) about this prospect and 22% very comfortable (9 0r 10). Least discomfort was felt by the 18-24s (10%) and Scots (14%). Most discomfort was manifested by the over-65s (including 38% for the 65-74s), with age also probably contributing to highs for those with no educational qualifications (44%) and the widowed (38%).

The 2011 BSA findings on religious affiliation were highlighted in the notes for editors section of a BBC press release on 12 September concerning the Corporation’s RE:THINK 2012 Religion and Ethics Festival, hosted in Salford recently.

In connection with the Festival, the BBC commissioned its own research from TNS BMRB among 585 16- to 24-year-olds, interviewed face-to-face between 15 and 21 August 2012.

Asked to rank the most important moral issue for them, having religious faith or beliefs featured in equal penultimate place in a list of eight options, scoring just 4% compared with 59% of the young who selected looking after family. Moreover, religion was considered the least important moral issue by 32% of respondents.

The BBC press release can be found at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/rethink-poll.html

 

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Summer Shorts

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Herewith a round-up of some recently-published religious statistics which may be of interest to BRIN readers:

Religious Affiliation

Asked whether they consider themselves to be a member of any religious group, 56% of adults reply Christian, 6% some other religion, and 36% none. The number professing no religion decreases steadily with age, from 52% among the 18-24s to 23% for the over-65s (73% of the latter claiming to be Christian). The biggest concentration of adherents of non-Christian faiths is to be found in London (12%) and with the 18-24s (10%).

Source: Populus poll for Insight PA, conducted online on 4-5 July 2012 among 2,117 Britons aged 18 and over. Data reported in table 41 at:

http://www.populus.co.uk/uploads/OmPrivate_Public.pdf

Older Giving

Slightly more than half (52%) of the UK’s over-65s were online in June 2012, 6% more than in March 2009, albeit still 30% below the average for all adults. This advent of the ‘silver surfer’ is proving financially advantageous to religious causes, even as the traditional church collection plate shows signs of drying up. In May 2012 the over-65s were more likely than average to prioritize charities related to cancer, old age and religion when it comes to their online giving, and less likely to support organizations dedicated to animals, foreign aid, and homelessness. Online contributions by the over-60s to religious causes rose by 171% between 2007 and 2011, compared with 128% for all adults, although online donations to culture and the arts grew even faster (459% among the over-60s, 210% for the population as a whole).

Source: Infographic, compiled by JustGiving from multiple sources, and posted on its blog on 6 August 2012 at:

http://blog.justgiving.com/community/older-giving/

Superstitions

41% of adults describe themselves as superstitious (including 48% of the 18-24s and 45% of women), with 39% saying they are not superstitious at all. The most prevalent superstitious practices are: not walking underneath ladders (38%), touching wood (33%), not opening an umbrella indoors (27%), and crossing fingers (26%). 32% consider themselves as lucky, 27% have a lucky number, but just 6% have lucky underwear. Four leaf clovers (26%) and black cats (20%) are the most widely-regarded omens of good luck, and breaking a mirror (35%) and number 13 (20%) of bad luck. 8% fear 2013 may not be a good year for them because it contains the number 13 in the date.

Source: OnePoll online survey of 1,000 UK adults aged 18 and over in July 2012. OnePoll has kindly given BRIN sight of the full findings, but the only substantive public domain report to date appears to be the post from 20 July 2012 on OnePoll’s blog at:

http://news.onepoll.com/avoiding-walking-ladders-popular-superstition/

Same-Sex Marriage

The Coalition Government’s commitment to widen the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples is proving none too popular with churchgoing Christians, 58% of whom say they are less likely to vote Conservative as a result and 43% less likely to vote Liberal Democrat. Moreover, as a consequence of Government policy on the issue, 75% state their perceptions of Tory leader David Cameron have worsened and 65% report the same about LibDem leader Nick Clegg. 63% believe Cameron has been intolerant of the opposition to the plan and 54% that Clegg has failed to listen to public concerns about it. Three-fifths agree that ‘whether or not I would have voted for the Conservative or Liberal Democrat Parties, I will not do so under their current leaderships if they introduce this measure’. 79% are not persuaded by Government reassurances that places of worship would not be forced to conduct same-sex marriages, while 86% fear that, even if Government does provide an exemption along these lines, it could be overturned by the UK courts or European Court of Human Rights.

Source: Cpanel survey by ComRes for the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) in which 569 churchgoing Christians in the UK aged 18 and over were interviewed online between 26 June and 11 July 2012. Full data tables, including a wide range of breaks by demographics and religion, were posted on 22 August 2012 at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/C4M_full_data_tables_July_12.pdf

Newspaper coverage of the findings can be tracked via the C4M website under the entries for 18 and 19 August 2012 at:

http://c4m.org.uk/news/

Religious Studies GCSE Results, 2012

There were 239,123 candidates for the full course General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in Religious Studies (RS) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland during the summer of 2012, an increase of 7.7% over the 2011 figure (8.0% for male students and 7.5% for female). RS entries accounted for 4.6% of the total for all subjects (4.3% for males and 4.9% for females), up by 0.3% on the previous year. Entrants achieving grades of A*, A, B or C at RS were 73.7% (67.1% for males, 79.4% for females), 4.3% more than the average for all subjects. As well as the full course, there is a short course in RS, with 235,916 entries in 2012 (8.5% less than in summer 2011, 9.2% down for males and 7.7% for females). Candidates in RS comprised 63.5% of the total for all short courses, with 53.8% achieving grades of A*-C (46.0% for males and 61.5% for females).

Source: Results tables (which include disaggregations by country) published by the Joint Council for Qualifications, representing the seven largest providers of qualifications in the UK, on 23 August 2012 at:

http://www.jcq.org.uk/attachments/published/1727/GCSE%20Results%202012.pdf

 

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Sunday Trading after the Olympics

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Clive D. Field

The suspension of the Sunday Trading Act 1994 for eight weeks around the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has now kicked in. Sunday shopping hours are thus deregulated in England and Wales, permitting large stores to open for more than six hours on Sundays for the first time. The Government’s rationale has been to demonstrate to the world that Britain is ‘open for business’.

However, opponents of the move have claimed that this is the ‘thin end of the wedge’ and could well be a prelude to a permanent change in the law. This fear is given some credence by an Ipsos MORI poll published on 30 July 2012 in which 36% of respondents indicated that they favoured the Act being amended for good. 52% were opposed and 12% undecided. 999 Britons aged 15 and over were interviewed face-to-face on 6-12 July 2012. The data tables can be found at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3019/Sunday-Trading-Poll.aspx

The results varied significantly by age, with 50% of the 15-24s wanting to see a permanent change in the law, and only 35% against. This led Ipsos MORI to forecast that reform ‘may become inevitable sooner rather than later as the current younger generation of shoppers matures’. In contrast, older Britons preferred the status quo, just 28% of the 55-64s and 21% of the over-65s endorsing permanent legislative amendment (63% and 66% respectively against).

Although groups wanting to keep Sunday special have argued that allowing large stores to trade on Sundays without restriction would undermine family life, the Ipsos MORI data reveal that those with children in the household are actually more likely (42%) to be in favour of permanent extended hours on a Sunday than those without children (33%). ‘Perhaps this is because for today’s generation of families, shopping at the weekend has become a leisure activity in itself for the whole family, as opposed to just an essential chore …’

Apart from older people, opposition to long-term change in the Sunday Trading Act was stronger among women (57%), the top (AB) social group (56%), the highest (£30,000+) income earners (56%), residents of Southern England outside London (64%), and shoppers whose main supermarket was Sainsbury’s (61%). Londoners (41%) and shoppers at Asda (42%) or Morrisons (41%) were particularly supportive of permanent change.

The overall pro-reform lobby of 36% is consistent with the 37% obtained by ICM Research in its telephone survey for the Sunday Telegraph on 22-23 March 2012. Men, the 18-34s, and Scots were then most disposed to relaxing the law after the Olympics and Paralympics, while opposition (56% overall) peaked among women (63%) and the over-65s (64%). Detailed findings are at:

http://www.icmresearch.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/03/OmBudget-Mar12-BPC.pdf

For other polls on Sunday trading and the Olympics, see BRIN’s coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/sunday-trading-and-the-olympics/

 

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Resonate Online Panel

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Christian Research’s new online panel, called Resonate, is now up and running and open for business, according to a letter which accompanies the latest mailing to Christian Research members.

Based on two recent online surveys, ‘over 5,000 respondents agreed to be participants in ongoing research studies, and this has enabled us to compile the UK’s largest online panel of Christian churchgoers and clergy’.

An initial snapshot of the Resonate panel, included in the same mailing, shows that in July 2012 it comprised 4,000 churchgoers and 1,000 clergy drawn from 2,850 individual churches, with the following basic demographic characteristics:

  • Gender: 52% male, 48% female (an underrepresentation of adult female worshippers, who constituted 58% at the English Church Census, 2005)
  • Age: 4% under 30, 23% 30-49, 71% 50 and above (in 2005 65% were aged 45 and over)
  • Marital status: 17% single, 67% in first marriage, 11% remarried, 3% widowed, 1% separated
  • Employment status: 34% full time, 15% part time, 10% self-employed, 2% unemployed, 32% retired
  • Voting in 2010 general election: Conservative 36%, Liberal Democrat 22%, Labour 14%, no answer 22%, did not vote 4%

These are evidently pretty devout Christians. 92% of them claim to attend church at least once a week and only 2% less than once a month. 82% say they read the Bible every day or most days. 76% give 5% or more of their net income to their church, and most seem to be involved in church leadership of one sort or another. 

Denominationally, the panel is predominantly Protestant, with only 3% Roman Catholics (a constituency Christian Research has often found it difficult to reach). 39% are Anglicans. Among the Free Churches, it looks as though Baptists may be overrepresented. 7% do not state a confessional allegiance.  

The panel is more internet-savvy than churchgoers as a whole, and this may have some impact on religious practices and attitudes. Whereas, by definition, 100% of Resonate members are internet users (with 52% also on Facebook and 17% blogging from a Christian perspective), the same is probably true for only a minority of all churchgoers (given their population pyramid is so top-heavy, skewed to older age cohorts who have been slow to get online, despite the ‘silver surfer’ phenomenon).

Obviously, these are very early days for Resonate, and BRIN naturally wishes the new commercial service well. Nevertheless, over time, Christian Research will need to demonstrate to its clients, members and users that it is addressing any known or perceived imbalances in the make-up of the panel, to ensure that it is reasonably representative of all churchgoing Christians. This could be achieved through targeted panel recruitment, selection of respondents for individual surveys, and weighting (where contextual demographics are available).

Similar methodological challenges have faced online surveys of research panels in general, since they appeared in the late 1990s. They have now almost become the norm among some polling organizations, as they can be conducted at a much lower cost and with greater speed than alternative forms of interviewing (face-to-face or telephone, or self-completion postal questionnaire).

They have proved particularly useful for capturing the views and behaviours of small, niche and spatially concentrated interest groups which are hard to reach in sufficient numbers through conventional national sample surveys, however large-scale. YouGov (launched in 2000) has had particular success in this regard, its British panel currently including 360,000 adults. BRIN has so far recorded 190 YouGov polls touching on aspects of religion.

Nor is Resonate the only online panel of Christians to be operating in the UK at present, although it seems to be the first to extend to clergy. Cpanel has been run by ComRes for the past four years, albeit its normal sample size is only around 500 churchgoing Christians. Data are weighted to reflect the profile of churchgoers in the English Church Census, 2005.

The Evangelical Alliance also runs a research panel of more than 3,000 evangelical Christians, just over one-third of whom respond to any particular quarterly survey. This is described by its parent body as ‘an opportunity sample of self-selecting volunteers’. So far as can be seen, no weighting is applied to the results.

Further details about Resonate can be obtained from Abbie Heath – abbie@christian-research.org.uk

 

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Archbishop of Canterbury

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Clive D. Field

There was some moderately cheering news this week for the members of the Crown Nominations Commission who are charged with coming up with a preferred name of the next Archbishop of Canterbury, in succession to Rowan Williams.

According to a Cpanel poll of 569 churchgoing Christians aged 18 and over in the UK, conducted online by ComRes for Premier Christian Radio between 26 June and 11 July 2012, the post is still seen as highly relevant from a variety of perspectives.

94% of all Christians (and 98% of Anglicans) said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was relevant to the Church of England, 92% (96%) to the Anglican Communion, 85% (94%) to Christians in the UK, and 71% (79%) to wider UK society.

Nevertheless, one-quarter of Christians felt that the post was no longer relevant to UK society, and this was particularly the view of men, those aged under 45, and members of Independent and New Churches.

Presented with a list of twenty-four possible characteristics and beliefs for a new Archbishop, the six cited as most important by all Christians (figures for Anglicans alone in parentheses) were:

  • Desire to stand up for the beliefs and values of Christians – 90% (96%)
  • Support for family values – 81% (77%)
  • Ability to communicate with normal people – 77% (83%)
  • Well-versed in biblical knowledge – 76% (89%)
  • Willingness to speak his mind – 69% (79%)
  • Support for same-sex marriage – 68% (62%)

The six attributes which came bottom of the list were:

  • Support for gay marriage – 4% (5%)
  • Liberal interpretation of the Bible – 6% (6%)
  • English nationality – 8% (6%)
  • Desire to increase overseas development aid spending – 16% (22%)
  • Opposition to the ordination of female bishops – 17% (7%)
  • Support for the ordination of female bishops – 23% (34%)

Of the twelve characteristics ranked of middling importance by all Christians, Anglicans were especially more likely than average to attach weight to:

  • Ability to cut through Church bureaucracy – 56% (67%)
  • Respected – 56% (66%)
  • Ability to unite the Church of England – 44% (56%)
  • Ability to unite the Anglican world Communion – 32% (50%)

Twelve potential candidates for the next Archbishop of Canterbury were offered to respondents. Combining first, second and third choices, John Sentamu (current Archbishop of York) headed the rankings for all Christians, at 51%, well ahead of Tom Wright (former Bishop of Durham and now at the University of St Andrews) on 27%. James Jones (Bishop of Liverpool) was in third place (19%) and Richard Chartres (Bishop of London) in fourth (17%).

Anglicans were less likely (28%) than all Christians (41%) to express no preferences at all. They also voted more strongly than the norm for Sentamu (56%), Wright (37%), and Jones (28%).

Some have expressed concerns about Sentamu’s candidature on the grounds of his age (he is 63), and it is interesting to note that he was much less popular among Christians under 35 years (40%). However, he was favoured by those Christians wanting to see an Archbishop with a traditional interpretation of the Bible (63%).

The full data tables from this poll, extending to 52 pages, are freely available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_Archbishop_Results_July_12.pdf

 

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Faith and Death

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Although one-half of all Britons claimed not to belong to any religion in the latest (2010) British Social Attitudes Survey, 85% of the dying subscribe to some faith, according to a Government survey of their relatives published on 3 July 2012.

The First National VOICES Survey of Bereaved People: Key Findings Report was commissioned by the Department for Health, in line with the commitment made in the End of Life Care Strategy (2008). Fieldwork was undertaken by the Office for National Statistics.

A one in six sample of adult deaths was drawn from those registered in England between 1 November 2010 and 30 June 2011, and a self-completion postal questionnaire was sent to the bereaved informant in November 2011, 22,292 (46%) of whom responded.

The breakdown of ages of death was as follows: under 60 7%, 60-69 11%, 70-79 21%, 80-89 39%, 90 and above 23%. The concentration is inevitably in age cohorts which, in sample surveys of the living, tend to score quite highly on measures of religiosity.

Excluding nil or invalid responses, 15% of the deceased were reported by their relatives as having no religion, 83% as Christians, and 2% of other religions. The proportion of non-Christians is much less than in society as a whole, where they have a relatively youthful profile and thus a lower risk of death.  

Asked about the support which the bereaved had received from carers during the last two days of their life, spiritual support received the lowest rating (67% saying it had been excellent or good).

This compared with 80% for support to stay where the dying wanted to be, 79% for relief of pain, 74% for relief of other symptoms, and 71% for emotional support. 19% described the spiritual support as poor and 13% as merely fair.

The combined rating of excellent or good for spiritual support varied by cause of death. It was best (74%) in cases of cancer, with 63% for cardiovascular diseases, and 64% for other causes.

Place of death also made a vast difference to satisfaction with spiritual support: 91% for deaths in a hospice, 74% at home, 74% in a care home, but only 57% in a hospital. This finding could well fan the flames of debate about hospital chaplaincy.

Nevertheless, religious care seems to have been comparatively limited for patients who had been in their own home during the last three months of life. Just 4% of relatives mentioned help by religious leaders, against 20% by home care workers, 16% by nurses, 8% by social or support workers, and 7% by occupational therapists.

The First National VOICES Survey report is available at:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/files/2012/07/First-national-VOICES-survey-of-bereaved-people-key-findings-report-final.pdf

and Excel tables of data at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-266228

Other BRIN posts on religion and end-of-life care include:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2011/death-and-dying-in-eastern-england/

and

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2010/doctors-and-end-of-life-decisions/

 

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Homophobia and Faith Schools

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Compared with five years ago, ‘[gay] pupils in faith schools are now no more likely to report bullying than those in non-faith schools, even though faith schools are still less likely than schools in general to take steps to prevent and respond to homophobic bullying.’

These are two of the key findings from The School Report: The Experiences of Gay Young People in Britain’s Schools in 2012, written by April Guasp and published by Stonewall (the lobbying organization for gays) on 5 July. It can be downloaded from:

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/documents/school_report_2012.pdf

The report is based upon an online survey completed, between November 2011 and February 2012, by 1,614 young Britons (aged 11-19) who were lesbian, gay or bisexual (or thought they might be) on their experiences in secondary schools and colleges.

The survey was conducted and analysed by Helen Statham, Vasanti Jadva and Irenee Daly of the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge. 29% of respondents said they had a religious belief, and 11% attended a faith school.

The results comparing faith schools with all schools have been extracted by BRIN from the report and are tabulated below:

  Faith schools All schools
The school says that homophobic bullying is wrong

37%

50%
The school responds quickly to homophobic bullying

24%

31%
Teachers who hear homophobic language never challenge it

36%

26%
Teachers and other staff make homophobic comments

22%

17%

Faith schools, therefore, still have some way to go to close the gap on other schools in their handling of homophobia, if these data are fully representative (unfortunately, the section on the survey methodology is extremely brief, but the sample will, presumably, have been self-selecting in large part).

 

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Women Bishops

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Clive D. Field

The Church of England’s General Synod may have passed an adjournment motion last Monday, to send the draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure back for further episcopal review, but a majority of the general public seem to favour the idea of women bishops, according to two opinion polls released this week.

The first survey was undertaken by ComRes, on behalf of the Bible Society, with online fieldwork on 4 and 5 July 2012 among 2,117 Britons aged 18 and over. It was published on 9 July, to coincide with the anticipated (but unrealized) final vote on women bishops in General Synod. The full data tables have been posted at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Bible_Society_Women_Bishops_July2012.pdf

ComRes discovered that support for women bishops hovered around the three-quarters’ mark, depending a little upon question-wording. Thus:

  • 74% thought that the Church of England should allow women to become bishops;
  • 73% considered that the fact there was a debate at all showed the Church to be out of touch with society’s expectations of gender equality;  
  • 79% contended that, as women could already be appointed as vicars, they should also be able to become bishops;
  • 77% said that it would be wrong not to allow women to become bishops just because of their sex

Opposition to women bishops ran at 12% overall, peaking at 19% among the over-65s and 17% for professed Christians (against just 4% of those with no religion). 15% were undecided, including 25% of non-Christians.

On the other hand, opinion was finely balanced about whether the issue of women bishops was sufficiently important for the Church of England to be spending time discussing it at the moment. While 43% said that it was, 42% deemed it to be a lower priority for the Church than other topics. Scots (50%) particularly took the latter view.

Although 67% claimed that the debate suggested there were many Anglicans who were sexist, 44% (rising to 51% of Christians) agreed that opponents of women bishops were merely following a traditional interpretation of the Bible, rather than being sexist, and society ought to respect their values.

The second poll was conducted by YouGov and published today. The sample comprised 1,721 adult Britons, who were interviewed online on 8 and 9 July 2012. The results are available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/nlslrhqpzu/YG-Archives-Life-YG-FemaleBishops-130712.pdf

YouGov posed only one question. Reminding respondents that ‘the Church of England is still considering how to accommodate the appointment of female bishops’, it asked whether the Church should allow such bishops or not.

The proportion opposed was the same as in the ComRes study (12%), but the number in favour was reduced to 55%, mainly because there was an explicit ‘no opinion either way’ option, which attracted 30% of the total vote (and 40% in Scotland).

Meanwhile, the mind of practising grass-roots Anglicans on the subject of women bishops has been tested by Christian Research for Forward in Faith (which describes itself as ‘a worldwide association of Anglicans who are unable in conscience to accept the ordination of women as priests or as bishops’).

1,125 regular Anglican churchgoers (95% attending services once a week or more) were interviewed online between March and May 2012. The sample was unweighted but was said by Christian Research to align closely with the composition, in terms of age and churchmanship, of the Church of England as a whole.

48% of these Anglican worshippers wanted to see the consecration of women bishops in the Church of England as soon as possible, 22% within the next 5-10 years, 15% when a consensus is reached among all other churches, and 16% never.

Churchgoers were mostly sympathetic to the position of those who could not, in conscience, support women bishops. 44% said that such persons should not be forced out of the Church, 31% wanted some form of compromise to enable them to remain within the Church, and 7% even thought they should have the right to veto the introduction of women bishops.

 

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Sundays, Aliens and the Olympics

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Sundays, aliens and the Olympics are just three of the topics covered in research reports which have reached the BRIN in-tray over the last couple of days. Needless to say, they are not necessarily causally interconnected! Here are some of the findings relevant to BRIN readers:

Sundays

Sunday, the traditional day of rest and worship in Christianity, is considered the most boring day of the week by two-fifths of Britons. Three-quarters say that they often do not bother to leave their home on a Sunday, and 46% regularly go through the day without seeing or speaking to anyone (does that include live-at-home partners and children?) For 56% it is simply a lazy, ‘nothing’ day, with not even television a comfort: 57% claim there is never anything worth watching on the box. By late afternoon the ‘Sunday night feeling’ – the dread of the coming working week – is already bearing down on many people.

Source: Online survey of 2,000 adult Britons in June by OnePoll for Premier Inn. Summarized in the 72point blog of 6 July 2012 at:

http://digitalhub.72point.com/2012/07/sunday-blues/

Aliens

15% of Britons are convinced that ‘man has made contact with extra-terrestrial beings (aliens)’. Males (18%) believe this more than females (13%) and manual workers (17%) more than non-manuals (14%). In terms of age, belief is highest among those between 40 and 59 years (21%) and lowest for the 18-24s (9%). 66% deny that there has been any human contact with aliens, while 19% are uncertain. The question was posed as part of a survey into six ‘conspiracy theories’. Interaction with aliens was the third most prevalent theory, after belief that Princess Diana was assassinated (24%) and disbelief that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy (17%).

Source: Online poll by YouGov among 1,752 Britons aged 18 and over on 19 and 20 June 2012. Data table available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/pzr1fuzydn/YG-Archives-Life-YG-Conspiracies-040712.pdf

Olympics

Although a minority (43%) of UK evangelical Christians are ordinarily interested in sport, with just 13% regularly participating in competitive sport, 79% feel that international sport is an excellent way of building friendships between nations, and 69% say they will be cheering on British competitors at the Olympic Games, which begin in London later this month. However, only 24% agree that the outlay of billions of pounds of public money on the Olympics has been well spent, and 30% consider that the Olympic movement is spoiled by competitors who cheat and take drugs.  

Source: The World on Our Doorstep?, the latest report in the Evangelical Alliance’s 21st Century Evangelicals series, and also covering attitudes to immigration and diversity at home, to overseas mission and other Christian causes, and to general international and foreign policy issues. It derives from an online survey of 1,151 UK evangelicals who are members of the 21st Century Evangelicals research panel (‘an opportunity sample of self-selecting volunteers’) in February 2012. The report can be downloaded from:

http://eauk.org/church/resources/snapshot/upload/The-world-on-our-doorstep.pdf

 

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