UK public shows high level of trust in neighbours

Of 24 countries studied, the UK ranked in joint fourth place for levels of trust in the people in their area, behind Norway, Sweden and Egypt, according to the analysis, carried out as part of the World Values Survey.

Over eight in 10 ( 84%) of UK respondents reported that they ‘trust completely’ or ‘trust somewhat’ people from their neighbourhood, compared with France ( 73%) the United States ( 72%) and Mexico ( 50%).

The study also found that trust in neighbours had increased among the UK public, rising from 78% in 2005 to 84% in 2022.

Northern Ireland ( 90%) emerged as the UK nation where people are most likely to trust those in their neighbourhood, ahead of England ( 84%), Scotland ( 81%) and Wales ( 81%).

The study also analysed attitudes towards historically marginalised groups, finding that the public are less likely to report that they would not like to have gay people, people who have AIDS, or people of a different race as neighbours.

However, attitudes have hardened towards neighbours addicted to drugs and those who are heavy drinkers. In 2022, 83% of UK respondents said they would not like to have drug addicts as neighbours – up from 63% in 1990.

The proportion who report that they would not like to live next to heavy drinkers also increased from 48% in 1981 to 57% in 2022.

The study found that 2% of people in the UK reported that they would prefer not to have neighbours of a different race, similar to Brazil ( 1%) and Sweden ( 1%).

Meanwhile, 5% of the UK public said they would have a problem with neighbours being immigrants, compared with 18% in Italy, 13% in Spain, 10% in France and 9% in Australia.

Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said: “The UK public are highly trusting of the people in their neighbourhood and very comfortable being neighbours with a wide range of groups, compared with many other nations and our own past views.

“It seems absurd that as recently as 1990 nearly a third of people in the UK said they’d be uncomfortable with gay neighbours, but this is now down to just 4%, and reflects a wider rapid change of attitudes, shown in increased acceptance of people from different races and immigrants. These shifts have been seen in other countries too, but the UK has often shifted more than many others, putting us now among the most open countries in the study.

“This does not apply to neighbours engaged in illegal or anti-social behaviour, however, with drug users in particular the least welcome, and the UK more hardline on this than many other countries.

“Our high levels of neighbourhood trust and tolerance are somewhat at odds with relatively widespread experience of local illegal or anti-social behaviour – for example, 28% of us say we’ve seen drug dealing in our neighbourhood, which is on a par with the US and compares with 7% in Germany.”

Data is taken from the World Values Survey 2022. Ipsos interviewed a random probability sample of 3,056 adults aged 18+ across the UK. This included respondents in England ( 1,645 ) and boost samples in Scotland ( 523 ), Wales ( 437 ) and Northern Ireland ( 446 ). Data has been weighted by region, education and age interlocked with gender to be nationally representative.

Respondents were able to complete the survey either through a face-to-face survey ( 1,509 completes), an interviewer-led video interview through MS Teams ( 86 ), or through either a self-completion paper survey ( 592 ) or an online push-to-web follow-up ( 869 ). Fieldwork ran from 1 March to 9 September 2022.