Citizenship Survey: April - June 2009, England

Published	29 October 2009
Type(s)	Statistics
Site	Corporate
Product code	09RFC06142
ISBN	9781409819806
Price	Free

Summary

The latest national statistics from the Citizenship Survey produced by Communities and Local Government were released on Thursday 29 October.

Statistics from the Citizenship Survey for England and Wales include data covering a range of issues including community cohesion, empowerment, values, racial and religious prejudice and discrimination, volunteering and charitable giving.

Data in the statistical release are based on England, with the exception of the Labour Market Discrimination figures which are based on England and Wales.

The latest statistics report on the first quarter of the 2009-10 survey, covering April to June 2009, headline findings for 2008-09 were published on 16 July 2009.

Key statistics from the release include:

In April-June 2009, 35 per cent of people felt they could influence decisions in their local area; this is lower than in 2001 (44 per cent), 2007-08 (38 per cent) and 2008-09 (39 per cent).
Eighteen per cent of people felt they could influence decisions affecting Britain; this is lower than in 2001 (25 per cent), 2007-08 (20 per cent) and 2008-09 (22 per cent).
In April-June 2009, 43 per cent of adults volunteered formally at least once in the 12 months prior to interview, with 28 per cent having volunteered formally at least once a month.
Levels of formal volunteering at least once a month are unchanged since 2001 (27 per cent), 2007-08 (27 per cent) and 2008-09 (26 per cent).
In April-June 2009, 83 per cent of people thought their community was cohesive, agreeing that their local area was a place where people from different backgrounds got on well together. This represents an increase from 2003 and 2005 (both 80 per cent), but is not significantly different from 2007-08 (82 per cent) and 2008-09 (84 per cent).
In April-June 2009, 76 per cent of people felt they belonged strongly to their neighbourhood, an increase from 2003 (70 per cent), but is not significantly different from 2007-08 (75 per cent) and 2008-09 (77 per cent).
In April-June 2009, 80 per cent of people were satisfied with their local area as a place to live; this is not significantly different from 2008-09 (82 per cent).
Older people were generally more likely to be satisfied with their local area than younger people. For example, 88 per cent of those aged 75 years and over were satisfied with their local area compared to 68 per cent of those aged 16 to 24 years.
In April-June 2009, 80 per cent of people mixed socially at least once a month with people from different ethnic or religious backgrounds, either at work, at a place of education, through a leisure activity, at a place of worship, at the shops or through volunteering. This is not significantly different from 2007-08 (80 per cent) and 2008-09 (81 per cent).
In April-June 2009, 8 per cent of people felt that racial or religious harassment was a very or fairly big problem in their local area; this is not significantly different from 2007-08 and 2008-09 (both 9 per cent).
A higher proportion of people from ethnic minority groups (14 per cent) thought that racial or religious harassment was a very or fairly big problem compared to White people (7 per cent).
A higher proportion of people from ethnic minority backgrounds (7 per cent) felt they had been refused a job for reasons of race compared to White people (1 per cent). A higher proportion of people from ethnic minority backgrounds (5 per cent) felt they had experienced discrimination on the grounds of their race when seeking promotion compared to White people (1 per cent).

The full Citizenship Survey Statistical Release and the accompanying tables are available to download below.

Notes

1. The 2009-10 Citizenship Survey, run by Ipsos MORI and BMRB on behalf of the Cohesion Research Unit within Communities and Local Government, is a household survey covering a representative core sample of 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.

2. The data are collected through face-to-face interviews. The Citizenship Survey has been commissioned every two years since 2001. Since 2007-08, the survey has moved to a continuous design, allowing the provision of headline findings on a quarterly basis. This statistical release is based on the first quarter of data from the 2009-10 survey (April - June 2009), which is made up of 2,252 core interviews and an additional 1,223 interviews with people from minority ethnic groups.

3. The statistics relating to labour market discrimination refer to England and Wales, whereas those relating to cohesion, empowerment and volunteering relate to England only. This reflects the coverage of policy responsibilities.

4. The statistics from the Citizenship Survey are produced to high professional standards, as set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. For more information see: www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html (external link).

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Citizenship Survey: April - June 2009, England
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Citizenship Survey: April - June 2009, England - Tables
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