The proportion of people who believe abortion should be allowed if a woman does not want a child has increased gradually during the period from 1983 to 2016, from 40% in 1983 to 72% in 2016. Similarly an increasing number of people believe abortion should be allowed if a couple cannot afford a child, which reached a high of 68% in 2016. Over 90% of people have consistently believed that abortion is acceptable if the pregnancy is a result of rape.[5]
Abortion should be allowed if a woman does not want a child (1983–2016)
1983
1985
1986
1987
1989
1990
1994
1995
1998
2004
2005
2007
2008
2012
2016
40%
51%
45%
55%
52%
58%
57%
63%
57%
63%
65%
68%
64%
64%
72%
Abortion should be allowed if a woman is pregnant as a result of rape (1983–2012)
1983
1985
1986
1987
1989
1990
1994
1995
1998
2004
2005
2007
2008
2012
2016
92%
93%
93%
96%
94%
93%
95%
92%
94%
94%
n/a
n/a
n/a
93%
n/a
Abortion should be allowed if a couple cannot afford a child (1983–2016)
Support for the death penalty has gradually decreased from 75% in 1986 to 43% in 2019. From 2014 onwards, less than half of people supported the use of capital punishment.[5]
For some crimes, the death penalty is the most appropriate sentence: Strongly agree/Agree (1986–2019)
1986
1987
1989
1990
1991
1993
1994
1995
1996
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
75%
74%
75%
70%
59%
74%
69%
67%
66%
60%
58%
59%
53%
56%
59%
55%
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
59%
58%
57%
60%
56%
55%
57%
56%
55%
49%
48%
46%
46%
46%
43%
n/a
Economic inequality
Income redistribution
Government should redistribute income to those less well off: Strongly agree/Agree (1986–2019)
1986
1987
1989
1990
1991
1993
1994
1995
1996
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
44%
46%
51%
50%
50%
45%
52%
48%
44%
39%
37%
39%
38%
40%
43%
32%
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
33%
34%
33%
39%
37%
36%
38%
42%
43%
40%
45%
43%
43%
43%
40%
n/a
Wealth distribution
Ordinary working people do not get a fair share of the nation's wealth: Strongly agree/Agree (1986–2019)
17% of people believed same-sex relationships were 'not wrong at all' in 1983 and the proportion of people holding this view reached a low of 11% in 1987 during the height of the AIDS pandemic. An increasing number of people were comfortable with same-sex relationships during the period 1989-2017 and as of 2018 66% of people do not consider same-sex relationships to be 'wrong at all'.[6]
Same-sex relationships are "not wrong at all" (1983–2018)
Attitudes towards transgender people were first examined in the 2016 report, which found that 49% of people view prejudice against transgender people as "always wrong", compared with 6% who believe it is "rarely or never wrong". 34% of people believed prejudice against transgender people is only "mostly" or "sometimes" wrong.[6]
Social security
From 1983 until the late 1990s, most people thought that benefits for the unemployed were too low and caused hardship. Following the election of the Labour government in 1997, there was a sharp decline in this view and the majority of people now believed that unemployment benefit was too high until 2016, when an increasing number of people began to consider unemployment benefits as too low and the proportion of people holding this view reached a twenty five year high of 51% in 2020.[7]
Benefits for unemployed people are too low and cause hardship (1983–2020)