Statistics
Citizenship Survey: People, families and communities
This report presents findings from the 2003 Home Office Citizenship Survey of England and Wales. It highlights key changes in active citizenship between the 2001 and 2003.
Title:
Citizenship Survey: People, families and communities
Author: Hazel Green, Helen Connolly and Christine Farmer (Office for
National Statistics)
Series: Home Office Research Study 289
Date published: December 2004
Number of pages: 280
Availability: Download
full report 
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The findings are based on a nationally representative sample of 9,486 adults in England and Wales and a supplementary sample of 4,571 adults from minority ethnic groups.
Key issues highlighted in the report include:
Rights and responsibilities, influencing political decisions, and institutional trust
People's trust in political institutions has risen between 2001 and 2003
51% of people trusted their local council in 2001, compared with 54% in 2003
the proportion trusting Parliament went up from 36% to 38%.
People were more likely to believe they could influence decisions affecting their local area than decisions affecting Britain. Both these proportions were lower in 2003 than 2001:
the proportion who felt they could influence decisions in their local area fell from 43% to 38%
those who felt they could influence decisions affecting Britain as a whole fell from 24% to 19%.
Trust in the criminal justice system did not change over the period, with 80% of people saying they trusted the police and 73% trusting the courts.
Perceptions of racial prejudice and discrimination
The proportion of people feeling there is now more racial prejudice in Britain than 5 years ago increased from 43% in 2001 to 47% in 2003.
People from minority ethnic groups were more likely than White people to feel public sector organisations would treat them worse than people of other races.
The immigration authorities, police, local housing departments, Prison Service and the armed forces were felt to be most discriminative
White people were particularly concerned about being discriminated against by local housing departments.
Involvement in the neighbourhood
The proportion of people who said they enjoyed living in their neighbourhood fell from 67% to 63%.
The proportion that felt people in their neighbourhood could be trusted rose from 40% to 47%.
Social Networks
There were high levels of social engagement with friends and neighbours showing a strong feeling of neighbourliness
65% had friends or relatives round to their homes and 67% went out with them at least once a month.
There were high levels of mixing among people from different social and ethnic backgrounds
In 2003, 66% of people said they had friends from different ethnic groups to them
Active community participation
Patterns of active community participation in England and Wales varied between 2001 and 2003, but there was no consistent trend:
the percentage of people who had undertaken civic activities in the 12 months prior to interview stayed the same at 38%
informal volunteering at least once a month showed an upward trend, increasing from 34% in 2001 to 37% in 2003
informal volunteering at least once in the 12 months prior to interview declined from 67% in 2001 to 62%
the number of people volunteering formally (through groups, clubs or organisations) increased from 39% in 2001 to 42% in 2003.
In England, the percentage of people who participated at least once a month in civic activities, informal volunteering or formal volunteering increased by more than 1.5 million people.
Family Networks
The proportion of people living as married couples rose from 48% to 53%, whilst the number of households with two or more families living in them fell from 5% to 1%.
The proportions of parents asking close relatives for advice on child rearing fell over the period:
in 2001, 28% asked their mothers for advice, compared with 23% in 2003.
Parents were also more likely to seek advice from formal sources.
Over 80% of parents preferred to receive advice on child rearing by speaking to someone face-to-face rather than through books, the internet or telephone help-lines.
Last update: 06 January 2005