USC Media Religion

By: Ipsos MORI Research Company

Wednesday January 21st, 2009

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is an independent organisation which aims to eliminate discrimination, reduce inequality, and protect human rights. In February, it commissioned Ipsos MORI to run a telephone poll among adults from different ethnic and religious backgrounds living in Great Britain.

The survey aimed to explore how, if at all, public attitudes towards race and religion have changed. It also looked at how the police are perceived in the eyes of the public ten years after the publication of the Macpherson report, which highlighted failings in the police investigation into the murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Key findings:
About half (49%) of the general public are optimistic Britain will be a more tolerant society in ten years time. This figure increases amongst people from ethnic minorities, with 58% optimistic about the future.

There are relatively high levels of social interaction between races in Great Britain, with over three in five (63%) people saying they mix with people from a different ethnic or religious background socially outside of work or school.

Young people are more likely to mix; 32% of people aged 16-24 mix daily compared to 5% of people aged 65 or over.

Younger people from ethnic minority backgrounds are also more positive about improvements in racial tolerance over the last ten years, than their older counterparts. 40% of 16-24 year olds from an ethnic background think there is more racial tolerance than ten years ago compared to 25% for those aged 65+.

On the day Obama becomes the USA's first Black president, just over half of the general public in this country (56%) think it is likely Britain will have a Black, Asian or mixed race Prime Minister in the next ten to 20 years.

The study shows that faith and belief are a more significant source of tension in Britain than race. Three in five (60%) of the general population and two in three (66%) of those in ethnic minority groups think religion is more divisive than race today.

Eighty-four per cent of the general population and 90% of ethnic minority communities support the notion that all ethnic groups in Britain should be free to celebrate their different customs and traditions alongside seeking to integrate into the British way of life.

The survey also reveals that concerns about race and immigration have fallen below worries over the economy and unemployment. When people are asked to rank the issues most concerning them about living in Britain today, half (50%) rank the economy highest, followed by 11% citing unemployment and 8% race and immigration issues. Poll findings from last year show race and immigration were the biggest issue (Ipsos MORI Issues Index December 2007).

In terms of attitudes to the police, when asked to consider the police investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, 36% of the public think there would be similar failings today if the police were to investigate such a crime. This rises to over a half (53%) among ethnic minority groups overall, and to 56% among Black African and Caribbeans specifically.

There is strong support for the idea that the police should be representative of the communities they serve, with four in five (80%) of the general public thinking this is important.

The Black community is more negative about treatment by the police. Overall 38% of the Black community think they would be treated worse than other races by the Police. This is compared to 9% for the population as a whole.

Technical Note
Findings are based on a total of 1,498 interviews, conducted by telephone using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Interviews were conducted by Ipsos MORI between 12 and 14 January 2009.

The questionnaire was approximately 12 minutes in length and contained a series of closed questions (single and multi-code) and demographic questions (the data are weighted to the population profile and to ensure results could be compared between different groups, e.g. Muslims versus the general GB population or males versus females).

In effect, a series of three surveys was conducted using an identical questionnaire:
   �   501 with a representative sample of adults in Great Britain, aged 16+
   �   334 with a representative sample of Black African and Caribbeans in Great Britain, aged 16+
   �   663 with a representative sample of Asians in Great Britain (excluding Chinese), aged 16+
For the Black African and Caribbeans and Asian surveys, respondents were targeted in those postcode sectors of the country where the population of people from ethnic minority backgrounds was 20% or more.