WIREDGOV

Citizenship survey - citizens feel a strong sense of belonging

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT News Release (018) issued by COI News Distribution Service. 29 January 2009

People feel their local area is a place where individuals from different backgrounds get on well together, new figures published today show (29 January).

Headline figures from the citizenship survey show that 82 per cent of people see their community as cohesive, an increase from 80 per cent in 2005.

Also:

* 76 per cent of people feel that they strongly belong to their neighbourhood with 81 per cent of people satisfied with their local area as a place to live

* Older people were more likely to be satisfied with their local area than younger people (88 per cent of people aged 75 years and over)

The survey is less positive on people feeling their voices are being heard at a local level. Fewer than 40 per cent of respondents felt able to influence decisions in their local area. This is an area the Government is keen to address and has set out plans - in its Communities in Control White Paper and in new legislation currently in Parliament - which will go even further in giving more power to local people.

Cohesion Minister Sadiq Khan said:

"Britain has a proud history of individuals from different backgrounds living side by side with each other and as this survey shows there remains more uniting us than dividing us.

"We must not take this for granted though. We need to ensure that Britain continues to be a place where people are proud to live and everyone can succeed. That means building on what we have already done to deliver equal opportunities and racial equality.

"Too few people feel they can influence decisions either at a local or national level. This is something we must address and why we are giving people more power to have a greater say in the way that local decisions that affect them are made."

These findings come from the Citizenship Survey: April - September 2008 (covering the first two quarters of data from the 2008-09 survey).

Every year almost 15,000 people are asked for their views on issues around community cohesion, discrimination, values, civic engagement and interaction. The biggest survey of its kind in the UK, the survey is one of the key tools used by Government to measure the effect of its policies.

The full survey is available on the Communities and Local Government website. Among the key findings are

Community Cohesion and belonging

* 76 per cent of people felt they belonged strongly to their neighbourhood, an increase from 70 per cent in 2003

* 81 per cent of people were satisfied with their local area as a place to live

* Older people were more likely to be satisfied with their local area than younger people. Levels of satisfaction were highest among those aged 75 years and over (88 per cent) and lowest among those aged 16-24 years old (76 per cent)

* 81 per cent of people mixed socially at least once a month with people from different ethnic or religious backgrounds

Active and empowered communities

* 39 per cent of people feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area. 22 per cent feel they could influence decisions affecting Great Britain. Both measures remain unchanged since 2007/08 but both have fallen since 2001

* 41 per cent of adults have volunteered formally at least once in the 12 months prior to interview

Discrimination

* 10 per cent of people said that racial or religious harassment was a big problem in their local area. A higher proportion of people from ethnic groups (20 per cent) thought that racial or religious harassment was a problem compared to White people (9 per cent)

* 8 per cent of people from minority ethnic groups who felt they have been refused a job for reasons of race compared with 2 per cent of White people who felt they were refused a job on these grounds

Notes to editors

1. The Citizenship Survey is a face to face household survey carried out on behalf of Communities and Local Government covering a representative core sample of almost 10,000 adults in England and Wales each year. There is also a minority ethnic boost sample of 5,000 to ensure that the views of these groups are robustly represented. It asks about a range of issues including views about the local area, community cohesion, racial and religious prejudice and discrimination, values, interaction/mixing, political efficacy, civic engagement, volunteering and charitable giving.

2. The survey was first carried out in 2001 and was carried out every two years. Since 2007 the survey is being conducted on an annual basis with headline findings available every quarter. A full report is published once a year.

The full Statistical Release can be found here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurveyq2200809

Media Enquiries: 020 7944 3288
Email: press.office@communities.gsi.gov.uk
News Releases: http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsroom