A massive global poll reveals that Britons are one of the nations most dissatisfied with 50 years of “progress”, with a majority saying they thought people were happier and safer in the last century, and a majority even saying they wished they had been born a long time ago.
Most Britons think the country was happier 50 years ago, according to the Ipsos poll, with only a fleeting minority thinking things are better now. Some 63% of Britons agree with the statement “All things considered, how would you describe things in your country today compared to 50 years ago, in 1975?” “, five times more than the 12% who say people will be happier in 2025.
The UK was well ahead of the global average of 55 percent who felt their country was happier in the last century, and only a handful of countries showed signs of dissatisfaction among their residents. The country most likely to say things were happier in the 1970s was France, with 70 percent opposed to just 5 percent.
Happiness isn’t the only indicator in which Britons are seeing a decline over the past half-century. 60 percent said the country was safer in 1975, according to Ipsos, and only 17 percent said they thought things had become safer now. Most thought it would have been better to be born in the 1970s rather than the 2020s, and even among the least convinced generation, Gen Z, it was a jaw-dropping conclusion with only slightly more convinced that it was better to be born now.
While it may be tempting to attribute these notions to nostalgia for a vaguely remembered childhood rather than a clear-eyed appreciation of decline, Ipsos noted in its study that the vast majority of Britons were not even born in 1975. The survey institute said through a spokesperson that the results reflect “widespread dissatisfaction with the current direction of our country.” However, the investigator made no comment in his statistical publication on the potential impact of recency bias.
This discontent is not limited to domestic issues, according to the study. Amid the war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, and a looming potential war in the Asia-Pacific region, respondents around the world believe there is more fear of “war or conflict” today than in 1975, during the Cold War. This feeling was even more pronounced in the UK, where 44% of respondents think there was less risk of war 50 years ago, compared to just 16% who think 2025 is safer.
The Ipsos study is just the latest in a veritable avalanche of polls in recent weeks, highlighting a very deep sense of unease and dissatisfaction among the British. As previously reported, a study by a London university found that a clear majority of Britons think the country is “divided”, with 86% saying there is tension between “immigrants and people born in the UK”. Half of voters believe that the country is changing too quickly, and a majority of them believe that the country should return to “the way it was”.
Much of the discontent seems to revolve around the migration issue. Another poll found that most Britons agree that “we risk losing our national identity if we are too open to people from all over the world”, that “it is bad for society if white people decline as a proportion of the population” and that “society is weakened by being made up of many different races, ethnicities and religions”.
Earlier this week, further research found that Britons were overwhelmingly in favor of what would amount to mass expulsions. Brexit leader Nigel Farage observed of the results that “the center is moving very quickly” and said “all of this indicates that the public have just had enough”.
