The NatCen Blog

Here we’ll be talking about our research in the context of the latest news, opinion and
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Posted on 14 November 2019 by Nancy Kelley, Deputy Chief Executive

Higher or lower? The country is divided on changing the voting age

The Labour Party’s attempt to amend the Parliamentary General Election Act of 2019 and extend the franchise just weeks before an election caused a resurgence of interest in whether 16 and 17 year olds should be allowed to vote.
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Tags: British Social Attitudes, voting age
Posted on 15 August 2019 by Miranda Phillips, Research Director

With growing waiting times for GP appointments, are AandE services under pressure?

While most people who go to A&E have an urgent medical problem, NHS data suggests that 15% of A&E use is not medically urgent. The issue of ‘over-use’ of emergency health services is an ongoing concern for both NHS providers and policymakers - and is also shared by the public.
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Tags: British Social Attitudes, GPs, healthcare
Posted on 11 July 2019 by Nancy Kelley, Deputy Chief Executive

Over the rainbow?

It’s Pride month, our timelines are full of rainbows, and this week Westminster voted to extend same sex marriage rights to Northern Ireland. So are we really getting less tolerant of lesbian and gay relationships?
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Tags: British Social Attitudes, LGBT, diversity, relationships
Posted on 28 September 2018 by Guy Goodwin, Chief Executive

The fall and rise of Britishness and Englishness

Following the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, UK politicians were quick to warn of the threat of English nationalism. Jack Straw, the former Labour MP, went as far as describing the English as “potentially very aggressive, very violent… and will increasingly articulate their Englishness following devolution”. Almost twenty years on, were they right? And is Brexit one of the consequences?
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Tags: BSA, British Social Attitudes
Posted on 13 March 2018 by Luca Tiratelli, Research Assistant

The Personal is Statistical: Why do you drink?

Why do you drink? It’s a personal question, and yet data from the 2015 British Social Attitudes survey suggests that the answer might not be that personal at all. In fact, it seems that quite a large part of the answers can be explained by simply by looking at the broad categories that you fall into as a person.
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Tags: drinking, health, British Social Attitudes, Health Survey for England, alcohol, binge-drinking
Posted on 19 January 2018 by Kirby Swales, Director of Survey Research Centre

The BBC still dominates when it comes to news online - here's why it matters

Despite accusations of bias from both sides of the political spectrum, the BBC still dominates online news. Based on data from the British Social Attitudes survey, we analyse why that's important.
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Tags: media, News, BBC, BSA, British Social Attitudes
Posted on 04 December 2017 by Emily Tanner, Head of Children, Families & Work

What do people think about early education for two year olds?

Four years since the government introduced free early education for disadvantaged two-year-olds in England, around 67,000 children are still missing out. Are the public's attitudes a barrier?
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Tags: BSA, British Social Attitudes, children, education
Posted on 22 November 2017 by NatCen, Research

NatCen Insights: Autumn Budget 2017

Today, Philip Hammond delivered his Autumn Budget. Here we use NatCen data to shed light on how the announcements are likely to be received by the public.
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Tags: British Social Attitudes, NHS, alcohol, budget, general election, housing
Posted on 21 November 2017

The Personal is Statistical: "Do they know that I'm brown?"

In our monthly series, The Personal is Statistical, we'll be talking about where statistics have interacted with our personal lives. In this blog, Keeva Rooney reflects on her experiences of racial prejudice.
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Tags: British Social Attitudes, racial prejudice, racism, The Personal is Statistical
Posted on 20 October 2017 by Guy Goodwin, Chief Executive

Three things Europe tells us about ourselves

Today it’s European Statistics Day, which provides a good opportunity to take a look at ourselves in the context of Europe.
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Tags: British Social Attitudes, Europe, European Social Survey, European Union, immigration, political trust, stats