Social Capital across the UK

Last week the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) released a report on Social Capital across the UK which looked at 5 measures of how people feel about their neighbourhood.

It highlighted that personal characteristics such as age, ethnicity and socio-economic background all have a role to play in explaining differences that exist between regions, urban and rural areas.

 Here, Dr Veronique Siegler, Senior Research Officer at  ONS,  leading the project on Social Capital since 2014, as part of the ONS programme of work on Wellbeing shares some insights from the project:

Our research shows that for the UK as a whole, the majority of people felt positively about their neighbourhood (Source: Understanding Society, 2011/12). However, marked differences were observed, depending on where people live. Exploring these differences is important to understanding how to build strong relationships in communities which in turn delivers well-being and economic benefits.

We found that people living in rural areas were more likely to feel positively about their neighbourhood than those in urban areas. For example, around 78% of people living in rural areas trusted people in their neighbourhood compared to 61% of people living in urban areas.

There were also differences across the English regions and countries of the UK. Northern Ireland had the highest proportion  and London the lowest proportion of people feeling that they belong to their neighbourhood (73% versus 59%) , that others around their local area are willing to help their neighbours (80% versus 65%), that most people in their neighbourhood can be trusted (73% versus 56%).

Our research highlights that characteristics such as age, ethnicity and socio-economic status all have a role in explaining the differences in how people in the UK feel about their neighbourhood.

• Older people were more likely to feel positively about their neighbourhood than younger people
• People who identified as White were more likely to feel positively about their neighbourhood than people from all other ethnic groups as a whole in terms of having trust in others in their neighbourhood, feeling a sense of belonging to their neighbourhood and feeling others in their local area were willing to help neighbours

At an individual level, people’s views about their neighbourhood varied with their economic activity. Trust in others in their neighbourhood was highest amongst the retired (79%) and the self-employed (70%) but lowest among the unemployed (43%). We also found that people employed in higher managerial occupations were more likely to trust people in their neighbourhood (73%) than people in routine occupations (54%).

We also looked at the impact of people feeling similar to others in their neighbourhood can have on how people feel about others. Not feeling similar could indicate a lack of bridging social capital, or connections between groups of different backgrounds. Around 6 in 10 people (61%) reported feeling similar to others in their neighbourhood, amongst which three-quarters of them (76%) felt they could trust others in their neighbourhood. In comparison, around 14% of people did not feel similar to others in their neighbourhood, amongst which 38% felt they could trust others in their neighbourhood.

→The State of Social Capital in Britain: Policy briefing

→Full ONS report on Social Capital across the UK

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