Key things about what's important to us

• The Economy! Since July 2008–February 2009 the economy has rated the most important issue for Britons in Ipsos Mori's monthly survey. Crime has been demoted to second place.
  Source: Ipsos Mori 2008/2009
• We're increasingly restless. The proportion of us who'd welcome more novelty and change in our lives has grown from 40% in 1986 to 57% in 2006.
  Source: nVision, 2006
• A class act: since the 1960s, the number of us identifying ourselves as middle class has steadily risen, while those saying they're working class fallen. Now, 37% of people call themselves middle class, and 57% working class.
  Source: National Centre for Social Research, 2007
• Safer streets? Crime is actually falling. Over the last ten years both household and personal crime have fallen a third. Yet two-thirds of us think there's more crime in the country as a whole, and 41% believe there's more in our local area.
• A happy family life is our priority: 70% of us name it as such. Having close friends, good health and an enjoyable job all follow. Financial security completes our top five ambitions.
  Source: Mintel, 2005
• Giving up our civil liberties? In 1990, 40% of us objected to the idea that 'every adult in Britain should have to carry an identity card'. Now this figure has halved to 22%.
  Source: National Centre for Social Research, 2007
• Miss your mates? 77% of women who work full-time, and 67% of men, would like to spend more time with their friends. In 1989, only 62% and 49% felt this way.
  Source: National Centre for Social Research, 2007
• Plastic worries: one in five of us is 'very worried' about credit card fraud, and a further 38% 'fairly worried'. However, in the past year, only one in 50 of us has actually been a victim.
  Source: British Crime Survey, 2006 and 2007
• Size matters: by 2020, almost 75% of us will be overweight. And by the year 2050, 60% of men, 50% of women, 20% of primary school-aged girls and 50% of primary school-aged boys will be obese.
  Source: Foresight Report on Obesity, 2008
• We don't trust many organisations, particularly the government (only 10% of us do). Of those we do trust, the BBC comes top (49%) - ahead even of the NHS (46%) and Church of England (35%).
  Source: Mori
• Better off elsewhere? UK children came bottom out of 21 developed countries in a survey into life satisfaction.
  Source: Unicef, 2008
• Not so green? A third of us find it hard to change habits to be more environmentally friendly. Likewise nearly 29% don't believe their lifestyle contributes to climate change, and for 28% the environment's a low priority compared to other things.
  Source: ONS, 2008

Back to Audiences	Top of page

Page last updated 29 May 2009