A major worldwide poll has found Britons are one of the most dissatisfied nations with 50 years of “progress”, with a majority saying they believe people were happier and safer in the last century and a majority even saying they wish they had been born a long time ago.
Most Britons believe that the country was happier 50 years ago. Ipsos poll foundand only a fleeting minority thinks that things are better now. Some 63 percent of Britons said they agreed with the statement “All things considered, how would you describe the situation in your country today compared to 50 years ago in 1975?”, five times more than the 12 percent who say people will be happier in 2025.
The UK was well ahead of the world average of 55 per cent of those who thought their countries had become happier in the last century, with only a few countries showing signs of greater dissatisfaction among their residents. The nation most likely to say things were happier in the 1970s was France, with between 70 percent and just five percent opposed.
Happiness is not the only indicator in which Britons have seen a decline over the past half century. According to Ipsos, 60 percent said the country was safer in 1975, while only 17 percent said they thought it was safer now. Most believed it would have been better to have been born in the 1970s than the 2020s, and even among the least convinced generation, Generation Z, that was the sharp end, with only slightly more convinced that it was better to be born now.
While it may be tempting to blame these views on nostalgia for a dimly remembered childhood rather than a clear-eyed assessment of decline, Ipsos noted in its survey that the vast majority of people in Britain were not even born in 1975. The pollster said through a spokesman that the results reflected “widespread dissatisfaction with the current direction of our country.” However, the questionnaire did not make any comments in its statistical release about the potential impact recency bias.
The study found that this dissatisfaction extends beyond domestic issues. With the war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East and potential war looming in the Asia-Pacific region, respondents around the world believe there is more fear of “war or conflict” today than there was in 1975 during the Cold War. This view was even more pronounced in the UK, where 44% of those surveyed thought there was less risk of war 50 years ago, compared with just 16% who thought 2025 would be safer.
The Ipsos survey is just the latest in a deluge of polls in recent weeks indicating a very deep sense of unease and dissatisfaction among Britons. How previously reportedA study by the University of London found that a clear majority of Britons believe the country is “divided”, with a huge 86 per cent saying there is tension between “immigrants and people born in the UK”. Half of voters say they think the country is changing too quickly, and more than not say the country should be returned “to the way it used to be.”
Much of the discontent seems to revolve around the issue of migration. Another poll found that most Britons agreed that “we risk losing our national identity if we are too open to people from all over the world”, that “it would be bad for society if the proportion of white people in the population decreased”, and that “society is weakened by the fact that it is made up of many different races, ethnic groups and religions”.
Earlier this week even more the study showed The British were overwhelmingly in favor of mass deportation. Brexit leader Nigel Farage noted the findings that “the center is moving very quickly” and said that “all of this indicates that the public have had enough.”
