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BUSINESS & POLITICS IN THE WORLD GLOBAL OPINION REPORT NO. 684 Week:
March 29 –April 04, 2021 Presentation:
April 09, 2021 684-43-22/Commentary:
Many In U.S., Western Europe Say Their Political System Needs Major Reform 56%
Of Households Had Fixed-Line Telephones, But Only 24% Of People'use'
Fixed-Line Telephones Ugandans
Grow More Discontent With Economic And Living Conditions, Afrobarometer Study
Shows Life
After Brexit – Britons Predict More Expensive Food Prices And Falling Eu
Migration 35%
Of Britons Have A Favourable View Of The Labour Leader 86%
Of French People Read At Least One Book In 2020, 6 Points Less Compared To
2019 Nearly
Half Of French Adults Say That Their Beauty Routine Has Not Changed (49%) Almost
Every Third German Has Experienced Bullying In The Workplace 27
Percent Of The German Citizens Entitled To Vote State That They Will Vote For
The CDU Church
Membership In The US Has Fallen Below The Majority For The First Time In
Nearly A Century Stem
Jobs See Uneven Progress In Increasing Gender, Racial And Ethnic Diversity American
Public Opinion And Gun Violence 7%
Of Americans Don’t Use The Internet Over
2.6 Million Australians Watch AFLW On Tv Allianz
Tops Customer Satisfaction Ratings For Holders Of Risk And Life Insurance
Policies Many
In U.S., Western Europe Say Their Political System Needs Major Reform INTRODUCTORY NOTE 684-43-22/Commentary: Many In U.S., Western Europe Say Their Political System Needs Major ReformAs they continue to struggle with a public health crisis and ongoing economic challenges, many people in the United States and Western Europe are also frustrated with politics. A four-nation Pew Research Center survey conducted in November and December of 2020 finds that roughly two-thirds of adults in France and the U.S., as well as about half in the United Kingdom, believe their political system needs major changes or needs to be completely reformed. Calls for significant reform are less common in Germany, where about four-in-ten express this view.
In each of the European countries surveyed, supporters of the party or parties that are currently in government tend to be among the most satisfied with democracy. While En Marche supporters are the most approving of the way democracy is working in France, their opinions have shifted little since a 2018 survey, which was the first Pew Research Center poll in France following their party’s electoral victory. Rather, much of the 14-point increase in democratic satisfaction between 2019 and 2020 in France has come from supporters of other parties. For example, 60% of the supporters of the Socialist Party now report satisfaction with democracy, up from 50% in 2019. The growth among Republicans is even larger, going from 40% in 2019 to 68% in 2020. Satisfaction is even up among those who hold favorable views of the right-wing populist party National Rally (49% in 2020, up from 30% in 2019) and the left-leaning populist party La France Insoumise (54% in 2020, up from 40% in 2019). The increase in democratic satisfaction is evident among supporters of most large German political parties in the country. For example, supporters of SPD (up 17 points), the Greens/Alliance 90 (16 points) and CDU (11 points) as well as those with a favorable view of Die Linke (16 points) all are more satisfied with democracy now than in 2019. But those with a favorable view of the right-wing AfD have not changed over the past year and continue to have relatively low democratic satisfaction (51%). In the UK, supporters of the Conservative Party (79%) are more satisfied with democracy than Labour Party (50%) supporters. But this comes as partisans in both camps are more satisfied than they were in 2019, with increases of 35 and 17 points, respectively. Those who identify as Leavers and Remainers are equally satisfied with how democracy is working in their country. Leavers and Remainers both saw Brexit as a failure of democracy in
focus groups Focus groups conducted in August 2019 in the UK were dominated by discussions of Brexit. At the time, around three years had passed since voters had approved a referendum to leave the European Union. Boris Johnson had just taken over as prime minster from Theresa May, and invocation of Article 50 – the start of formal withdrawal – had been delayed until at least October, meaning the UK was still in the EU and still consumed by debates about Brexit. Both Leavers and Remainers saw the aftermath of the referendum as a gross failure of democracy. Although Brexit was not an explicit topic for guiding focus group discussion, it came up in several groups as something that made people feel ashamed to be British. For Leavers, complaints centered around frustrations that, despite their vote to leave, the country had made no forward progress on the issue, thus “highlight[ing] clearly how little our opinion matters.” Leavers bemoaned calls for a second referendum that were percolating at the time, arguing that overturning the will of the people, which they thought had been fully expressed in the 2016 vote, would be a miscarriage of democracy. For Remainers, frustrations often hinged on the process. People felt that misinformation was rampant in advance of the 2016 vote, and many who voted to leave may not have done so had they understood the implications of their vote. Others highlighted how it would have made more sense to negotiate a deal and put that to the people in a referendum, rather than voting first on whether to leave when there was no clear plan on how to execute it. Remainers also noted that Brexit has “diverted all other issues,” “distracting” the government away from “running the country,” which one participant even blamed for an increase in crime. Despite wanting wildly different outcomes with regard to Brexit, what united Leavers and Remainers were a few core complaints and their general dissatisfaction with their politicians and the political process. Both Leavers and Remainers lamented how much time Brexit was taking and suggested just “getting on with it.” People highlighted how it was difficult to plan for the future with such a major decision in limbo. Some emphasized how the whole thing made Britain look weak, the politicians seem ineffective, and the country was becoming a global “laughing stock.” There are
few age or gender differences across these countries when it comes to
satisfaction with democracy. But those who have completed at least a
university degree tend to be more satisfied with democracy than those who
have completed only some university schooling or less. Across all four countries surveyed, people who think the economy is in good shape are significantly more content with the functioning of their political system than those who think the economy is in poor shape. In France, for example, those who think the economy is in good shape are more than twice as likely to be satisfied with democracy (70% vs. 33%). Similarly, those who think they have opportunities to improve their own standard of living are also more satisfied with democracy. Those who think elected officials care what ordinary people think are also more likely to be satisfied with democracy. In France, Germany and the UK, people who think their country has done well handling COVID-19 are also around twice as likely to be satisfied with democracy as those who think their country has handled the pandemic poorly. But, in the U.S., those who think the country has done well and those who think it has done poorly when dealing with the global health crisis are equally satisfied with democracy. Outside of Germany, many see need for major changes to their
political systems France and Germany, though not in the U.S. or UK. Democratic satisfaction lower in U.S. than European countries
surveyed Satisfaction with democracy varies widely across the four countries surveyed. In the U.S., only 45% of people say they are satisfied with the way democracy is working (the survey in the U.S. took place Nov. 10 to Dec. 7, 2020, which was before the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by a mob of President Trump’s supporters). In contrast, in each of the three European countries surveyed, a majority holds this view: 55% in France, 60% in the UK and 80% in Germany. And, in Germany, around four-in-ten are very satisfied (39%). No more than one-in-five in the other three countries surveyed reach this level of satisfaction.
Across all three European countries surveyed, satisfaction with democracy has increased substantially: up 14 points in France, 15 points in Germany and 29 points in the UK between 2019 and 2020. In contrast, in the U.S., the percentage of people who say they are satisfied with democracy has remained relatively consistent in recent years. But, in the U.S., who is satisfied has changed substantially over the past year. Between 2017 and 2019, Republicans were more than twice as satisfied with democracy as were Democrats. In 2019, for example, 57% of Republicans and 26% of Democrats said they were satisfied. But, in 2020, after Biden’s election, this relationship inverted, and today, 50% of Democrats are satisfied with democracy while only 39% of Republicans say the same.
Across the four countries surveyed, few say they live in a political system that does not need to be changed at all: 6% in France, 7% in the U.S., 11% in Germany and 12% in the UK. But what degree of change they seek – minor, major or complete reformation – varies. In both France and the U.S., a majority say dramatic change is needed, with a plurality in each country saying the system requires major changes (47% in each country). In the UK, fewer seek substantial changes (14% complete reform, 33% major changes), and the largest share of people report the system needs minor changes (38%). Only in Germany do substantially fewer than half seek serious changes. In the U.S., Democrats and independents who lean toward the party tend to be slightly more supportive of major systemic overhaul than Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party – 70% vs. 58%, respectively. This is consistent with results of other recent surveys showing that Democrats are more supportive of reforms like moving away from the electoral college or doing everything possible to make it easier for every citizen to vote. Democrats are also less likely than Republicans to describe America as a country where people are free to peacefully protest or where the rights and freedoms of all people are respected. Supporters of the party currently in power in France – En Marche – are slightly less likely to support major systemic overhauls (51%) than are supporters of the two major traditional political parties: the Republicans (59%) and the Socialist Party (70%). But those with favorable views of the populist right-wing National Rally and left-wing La France Insoumise are no more likely to call for major changes or complete reform to the French political system than are those with unfavorable views of those parties. In the UK, support for at least major changes is higher among Labour Party supporters (57%) than among Conservative Party supporters (29%). Those who identify as Remainers are also more supportive of significant changes to the political system than those who identify as Leavers. Similarly, those who have an unfavorable view of the right-wing Brexit Party (Reform UK) tend to be more likely to want systemic reforms than those who have a favorable view of the party (56% vs. 30%, respectively). In Germany, where the overall desire for change is relatively low, there are few differences along partisan lines. Across all four countries surveyed, those who think most politicians in their country are corrupt are more likely to favor systemic reforms. For example, in the UK, 60% of those who say “most politicians are corrupt” describes their country well think the system needs significant changes, compared with 39% who say it does not describe the country well. Those who are less satisfied with the way democracy is working and less trusting of the government are more likely to call for significant changes. On the other hand, those who think elected officials care what ordinary people think are less likely to think large-scale reforms are required.
Views of how well COVID-19 has been handled also play a role: People who think their government has done a poor job dealing with the pandemic are also more likely to call for major reforms. In Germany, for example, 70% of those who think the government has done a poor job think the system needs complete or major reforms, compared with just 29% of those who think the government has dealt with the pandemic well. Those who believe their country is doing poorly economically are also more likely to call for substantial reforms to the political system. The same is true of those who say they lack opportunities to improve their standard of living. But opinions don’t differ across age groups in any of these countries, with younger and older people equally likely to support calls for reform.
A belief that politicians are out of touch is also common. In France, the U.S. and the UK, roughly half or more say elected officials do not care what ordinary people think. Still, in both France and Germany, the share of the public who believe elected officials do care has increased since 2018. Since 2017, the French and German publics have also become more trusting of government. In France, just 20% said they trusted the government to do what is right for the country in 2017, compared with 55% in the new survey. Trust is especially high among supporters of President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche party, but it has risen across the partisan spectrum. Similarly, trust is up among supporters of parties on the right, left and center in Germany. Trust in government has also increased slightly in the UK, although while it has risen among supporters of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, is has actually declined among those who identify with the opposition Labour Party. How Pew Research Center measures public trust in government, globally
and domestically For several years, Pew Research Center has been committed to researching issues of trust, facts and democracy. And for decades, the Center has studied Americans’ attitudes about federal, state and local government in the United States. In this survey, the Center compares the attitudes of the publics in four nations – the U.S., France, the UK and Germany – toward democracy and their countries’ political systems. The survey also includes a measure of trust in the four countries’ national governments: How much do respondents trust the government “to do what is right for their country?” This is different from the question that has been asked for more than six decades by Pew Research Center and other survey organizations in the U.S.: “How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right? In the United States, the measures yield very different results: Last August, just 20% of the public said they trusted the government in Washington to do what is right “always” or “most of the time.” Americans’ trust in the federal government has been mired at that low level for longer than a decade. In the four-nation survey, which was conducted in the U.S. in November – after Joe Biden had been declared the winner of the presidential election, but when large shares of Donald Trump’s supporters expressed skepticism about the result and the voting process – 54% of Americans said they trust the government a lot or somewhat to do what is right for the country. This is little changed from 51% who said this in 2017. The four-nation survey provides a valuable comparative examination of views of government, the political system and the state of democracy. In the coming months, the Center will update its long-standing measures of Americans’ trust in their government, as well as attitudes on the scope and size of government. In the U.S., the overall level of trust in the government has remained largely unchanged since 2017, but who trusts the government shifted substantially. In 2017, only months after Donald Trump was elected president, Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican Party were more likely to trust the government than Democrats and those who lean Democratic. In the current survey, fielded in November and December 2020 – after major media outlets had called the election for now-President Joe Biden – Democrats express higher levels of trust. The state of U.S. politics during this survey period
In France, Germany and the UK, trust in government tends to be higher among those who think their country has done a good job of handling the coronavirus pandemic. This is particularly true in France, where 80% of those who say the country is handling the outbreak well trust the government, compared with only 27% of those who say the country is doing a poor job. Trust is also linked to views about the economy. People who think the national economy is currently in good shape express higher levels of trust in government, as do those who believe they have a good chance to improve their own standard of living. While more than half of Americans say they generally trust the government to do what is right, fewer than half (45%) are satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country. (The survey took place before the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by a mob of Trump’s supporters.) In contrast, majorities in France (55%) and the UK (60%), as well as eight-in-ten Germans, say they are satisfied with how democracy is functioning. These four publics are divided over how much impact ordinary people can have on government: 54% of Germans, 53% of Americans, 50% of Britons and 47% of the French say the statement “ordinary people can do a lot to influence the government” describes their country well. In all four
countries, there is considerable interest in political reforms that would
potentially allow ordinary citizens to have more power over policymaking.
Citizen assemblies, or forums where citizens chosen at random debate issues
of national importance and make recommendations about what should be done,
are overwhelmingly popular. Around three-quarters or more in each country say
it is very or somewhat important for the national government to create
citizen assemblies. About four-in-ten say it’s very important. Such processes are
in use nationally in France and the
UK to debate climate change policy, and
they have become increasingly common in
nations around the world in recent years.
Citizen assemblies are popular across the ideological spectrum but are especially so among people who place themselves on the political left.1 Those who think their political system needs significant reform are also particularly likely to say it is important to create citizen assemblies. There are also high levels of support for allowing citizens to vote directly to decide what becomes law for some key issues. About seven-in-ten in the U.S., Germany and France say it is important, in line with previous findings about support for direct democracy. In the UK, where crucial issues such as Scottish independence and Brexit were decided by referendum, support is somewhat lower – 63% say it is important for the government to use referendums to decide some key issues, and just 27% rate this as very important. These are among the findings of a new Pew Research Center survey conducted from Nov. 10 to Dec. 23, 2020, among 4,069 adults in the France, Germany, the UK and the U.S. This report also includes findings from 26 focus groups conducted in 2019 in the U.S. and UK. How the focus groups were conducted Across the four countries surveyed, more trust the government than
not Half of adults or more trust the national government to do what is right in each of the four countries surveyed. But, whereas only a slim majority trust the government in the United States (54%), France (55%) and the United Kingdom (55%), 80% in Germany express this view. And, in Germany, 47% say they trust the national government a lot – more than twice as many as say the same in any of the other surveyed countries and more than three times as many as in the U.S., where only 13% have a lot of faith in the government.
Trust in the
government has increased in each of the three European countries surveyed
since 2017, the largest change being in France (55% today, up from 20%). The
2017 French survey was fielded in the month prior to the first round of the national
elections – a particularly contentious election
in which nontraditional parties, including the now-governing En Marche, were
vying for leadership.2 Trust
has grown most precipitously among En Marche supporters: Today, 92% trust the
government, compared with 37% who said the same before the 2017 election that
brought Emmanuel Macron to power. Supporters of the Republicans (LR) and the
Socialist Party (PS) – two parties that had long governed in France prior to
2017 – also have more trust in the government now. And, while only around
half of those with a favorable view of the right-wing populist National Rally
trust the government (53%), trust among this group has gone up 44 percentage
points since 2017.
In Germany, trust in the government is up 11 percentage points since 2017, and the share who trust the government a lot has nearly doubled during this same period. But, while supporters of the ruling CDU are among the most trusting of the government (92%), trust has increased comparably since 2017 among most of the major parties. And, while those who have a favorable view of Alternative for Germany (AfD) tend to be much less trusting than those who have an unfavorable view of the party (52% vs. 85%), even this group is more trusting of the government now than in 2017, when only 33% trusted the government.3 In the UK, the share who trust the government a lot has risen 7 points since 2017 (to 21%), and overall trust has increased 6 points. For supporters of the Conservative Party – which was governing in 2017 but had a change of prime minister in 2019 – trust in the government has gone up from 76% to 84%. On the other hand, Labour Party supporters are less likely to trust the government now than they were in 2017 (34%, down from 42%). Trust is significantly higher among those who identify as Leavers (72%) than those who identify as Remainers (45%), as well as among those who have a favorable view of the right-wing populist Brexit Party, now called Reform UK (76%) compared with those who have an unfavorable view of the party (46%).4
In France, Germany and the UK, those who think their country is doing well handling COVID-19 are much more likely to trust the government than those who think their country is handling the pandemic poorly. The difference is largest in France, where 80% of those who think the country is doing well handling the outbreak trust the government, compared with only 27% of those who think the country is not doing a good job.
Elected officials seen as out of touch in U.S., France and UK Nearly two-thirds of Germans (65%) say the statement “elected officials care what ordinary people think” describes their country well. However, fewer than half of those surveyed in France, the U.S. and the UK express this opinion.
In the UK and U.S., however, the share who say elected officials care about ordinary people has remained largely unchanged since 2018, although it has risen in the UK among those who identify with Conservative Party and decreased among those who identify with the Labour Party. Today, Conservatives are more likely (61%) to say elected officials care than are Labour Party (41%) supporters. Those who have a favorable view of the Brexit Party (Reform UK) are also more likely than those who have an unfavorable view of the party to say elected officials care what ordinary people think (56% vs. 43%, respectively). Partisan
identity colors opinion about whether elected officials are seen as caring in
each of the countries surveyed except for Germany. For example, in France,
about two-thirds (67%) of those who identify with President Emmanuel Macron’s
party En Marche say elected
In the U.S., Democrats are more likely than their Republican counterparts to describe elected officials as caring. Only one-third of Republicans say elected officials care what ordinary people think, compared with about half (52%) of Democrats. This difference in opinion between partisans has flipped since 2018, when Donald Trump was president. At that time, 50% of Republicans said elected officials care, compared with only 36% of Democrats. There are few differences on this question by age, gender, income or education. However, French men (46%) are 10 percentage points more likely than women (36%) to say that elected officials care what ordinary people think. In Germany, those in the highest income group are more likely than those in the lowest income group to say elected officials care. While in the U.S., those with more education are more likely to agree that elected officials care than those with less education. Americans largely describe politicians as corrupt, fewer Europeans
agree Two-thirds of Americans say the statement “most politicians are corrupt” describes their country well. However, in France and the UK, publics are more split on the matter, with slightly fewer than half saying most politicians are corrupt. Germans are much less likely to express this opinion. And in the U.S., while large majorities in both parties believe most politicians are corrupt, Republicans are more likely (78%) to say this than are Democrats (60%). Partisan differences are relatively muted in the UK, Germany and France, although French supporters of the Republicans (49%) are more likely than En Marche supporters (32%) to describe politicians as corrupt. In focus groups, Americans and Britons both gave examples of
politicians being corrupt
This was especially true in the UK, as it came up in discussions with groups comprised of both Conservative and Labour supporters as well as those who had voted “leave” or “remain” in the EU referendum. Some Britons cited “expenses scandals” among members of Parliament (MPs) as reasons for why they were embarrassed about politicians. One 33-year-old woman in Edinburgh said that “all MPs are pocketing everyone else’s money.” In the U.S., discussion of corruption among politicians was related to the notion that politicians can be “bought” by corporations through the lobbying process. In Seattle, participants discussed how they were ashamed of corruption in America, with one participant saying that “it seems like politics are being bought and sold” due to “lobbyists and the special interest groups and all that kind of thing.”
Younger people in the UK, France and U.S. are more likely to say most politicians are corrupt. The difference is largest in the UK, where 61% of people ages 18 to 29 say that politicians are corrupt, compared with only one-third of people 65 and older, a 28 percentage point difference. Respondents in the lowest income group in Germany, the UK and France are more likely to say politicians are corrupt than those in the highest income group in these countries. However, about two-thirds of Americans of all income groups express this view. Publics largely split on whether ordinary people can do a lot to
influence the government When asked about how much impact ordinary citizens can have on politics, these four publics are somewhat divided. Germans and Americans lean slightly toward the view that “ordinary people can do a lot to influence the government,” while the British and French publics are more closely divided. In France, about one-quarter (24%) say that the statement describes their country “not well at all,” while one-in-five say the same in the U.S. and UK. In each country surveyed, those who say that they personally have a good chance to improve their standard of living are more likely to say that ordinary people can influence the government. Only in the U.S. does partisanship play a role in shaping this belief: 58% of Democrats think that ordinary citizens can influence the government, compared with 46% of Republicans. Citizen assemblies popular, especially among those who want major
change to the political system
In all four countries, there is considerable support for the creation of citizen assemblies where citizens debate issues and make recommendations about national laws. Citizen assemblies have become increasingly common in nations around the world in recent years and have been used, for example, in Ireland to decide such contentious issues as abortion and gay marriage. Citizen assemblies have already been used nationally in France and the UK to debate environmental policy. The French Citizens’ Assembly on Climate, initially convened in October 2019 in response to the Yellow Vest Movement, concluded last year with the release of 149 proposals, though many remain to be implemented. The country with the largest share of respondents who say such reforms are very or somewhat important is the United States, though about three-quarters or more in each country say it is important to create citizen assemblies. A plurality of Americans say it is very important for the national government to create citizen assemblies; only 21% say it is not too or not at all important.
There are significant ideological differences on the question of how important it is to create citizen assemblies. In France and the UK, those on the ideological left are significantly more likely than those on the right to say creating citizen assemblies is very important.
In the UK, where citizen assemblies have been used to debate Scottish independence, Brexit and climate change policy, there are significant political differences on this question. For instance, 83% of Labour supporters think it is very or somewhat important for the government to create citizen assemblies, while 66% of Conservative supporters say the same. Those who identify as Remainers are also more likely than those who identify as Leavers to support citizen assemblies. Majorities say it’s important for voters to decide key issues
A plurality (42%) of Americans say it is very important to decide some key issues by referendum. Views on this question are linked to perceptions of political corruption: 45% of Americans who think most government officials are corrupt say it is very important for the national government to allow citizens to vote directly on key issues, compared with 35% of those who think the phrase “most government officials are corrupt” does not describe the country well. There are similar divides in Germany and the UK. While the ghosts of referendums past may influence British opinions on this question today, there are no significant differences between those in the UK who identify as Remainers and those who identify as Leavers. However, there are differences based on age. Nearly four-in-ten Britons ages 18 to 29 – some of whom were too young to vote in the Scottish independence and Brexit referendums – hold the view that it is very important for the national government to allow citizens to vote directly to decide what becomes law. This is a higher share than among those ages 30 to 49 (23%), 50 to 64 (27%) or 65 and older (24%). In the U.S.
and Germany, those with less education are especially likely to think it is
very important for the national government to decide key issues by
referendum. About one-quarter of Germans (24%) with a university education or
higher hold that opinion, compared with 43% of those with a secondary
education or less. A similar pattern appears in the U.S., with a Those with lower incomes are also significantly more likely than those with higher incomes to say it is very important to have referendums. In the U.S., this income gap is 24 points, with about half of lower-income Americans and about three-in-ten higher-income Americans holding that view. There are also significant income gaps of 21 points and 11 points in Germany and France, respectively. In the three European countries, larger shares of those with favorable views of populist parties think it is very or somewhat important for their government to allow citizens to decide what becomes law for some key issues. This pattern transcends ideology, with more favorable views toward referendums among supporters of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Brexit Party (Reform UK) and the left-wing La France Insoumise. (PEW) MARCH
31, 2021 SUMMARY
OF POLLS
ASIA (Pakistan) 4 In 10 Pakistanis Are Hopeful That Their Household’s
Financial Situation Will Improve In The Next 6 Months 41% Pakistanis are hopeful that their household’s financial situation will improve in the next 6 months. A nationally representative sample of adult men and women from across the four provinces was asked the following question, “What do you expect your household’s financial situation to be in next 6 months?” In response to this question, 6% said ‘Will be a lot better’, 35% said ‘Will be better’, 24% said ‘No change’, 12% said ‘Will be worse’ and 7% said ‘Will be a lot worse’. 16% did not know/did not respond. (Gallup Pakistan) March 30, 2021 (South
Korea) 56% Of Households Had Fixed-Line Telephones, But Only 24%
Of People'use' Fixed-Line Telephones The actual usage rate of landline phones is
significantly lower than the retention rate. This is because you cannot
receive landline calls unless you are staying at home, and depending on the
characteristics of family members, there are people who mainly answer
landlines and those who receive less. In the September 2016 survey, 56%
of households had fixed-line telephones, but only 24% of people'(frequently +
occasionally) use' fixed-line telephones. As of 2021, the rate of
landline phone use is estimated to be lower. 2021/04/01 AFRICA (Uganda) Ugandans Grow More Discontent With Economic And Living
Conditions, Afrobarometer Study Shows Poor and older citizens, rural residents, and those living in the Northern and Eastern regions were more affected than their counterparts. More than half of citizens said the pandemic caused a household member to lose a job, a business, or a primary source of income. Overall, a majority of Ugandans gave their government poor marks on improving the living standards of the poor and job creation, and most saw its economic policies as harmful rather than beneficial. (Afrobarometer) 30 Mar 2021 WEST
EUROPE (UK) Nine In Ten Teachers (91%) Say They Would Be Opposed To
Extending The Typical School Day For The Current School Year YouGov’s latest Teacher Track survey shows that the overwhelming majority of teaching staff across Great Britain are opposed to such measures. Nine in ten teachers (91%) say they would be opposed to extending the typical school day for the current school year to help students make up for lost teaching time during the pandemic, including three quarters (76%) who strongly oppose the idea. Only 8% are favour of extending the school day. (YouGov UK) March 30, 2021 52% Agree That They Will Lead To An Unequal Society By
Restricting What People Who Haven’t Received The Vaccine Can Do A new Ipsos MORI UK KnowledgePanel poll has found the public support using ‘vaccine passports’ across a range of circumstances. There is particularly strong support for their use for people who are travelling abroad (78%), for visiting relatives in hospitals (74%) or care homes (78%). Seven in ten say they should be needed to go to the theatre or an indoor concert (68%), while six in ten support needing one to go to the pub or eat out in a restaurant (62%), or to go to the gym (63%). (Ipsos MORI) 31 March 2021 Life After Brexit – Britons Predict More Expensive Food
Prices And Falling Eu Migration Britons do not have a positive outlook when it comes to Brexit’s effect on food prices, 6 in 10 (61%) say Britain’s exit of the EU will make food prices more expensive. A quarter believe it will make little difference to the price of food, while only 5% think they will become cheaper. Only 13% of Britons expect more migrants to come to the UK from EU countries because of Brexit, half believe the number of people moving here will decrease. Around a quarter (27%) believe Brexit will make little difference. (Ipsos MORI) 1 April 2021 35% Of Britons Have A Favourable View Of The Labour Leader As of 1 April, Starmer’s net favourability score stands at -11, his second worst showing to date, although this does represent an improvement from the nadir of -18 in early March. Currently 35% of Britons have a favourable view of the Labour leader, compared to 46% who have a positive view. One in five (19%) still don’t hold an opinion of Starmer. Among Labour voters, Starmer maintains a positive favourability score, at +26. Nevertheless, this too represents a decline from his heyday in 2020, with Starmer peaking at +59 among his own party’s voters in June. (YouGov UK) April 03, 2021 (France) 86% Of French People Read At Least One Book In 2020, 6
Points Less Compared To 2019 The French are still very numerous to read (more than 80% of the French have read at least one book during the year), even if 2020 is marked by a drop in reading , certainly linked to the constraints imposed by the health crisis. For young people, the idea that books provide an escape is also very important (23%). A desire for easier reading , but also for online discussions and recommendations. The French are very attached to their bookstores . 80% of buyers say they bought books there in 2020. (Ipsos France) March 30, 2021 Nearly Half Of French Adults Say That Their Beauty Routine
Has Not Changed (49%) In comparison with last year (before the health crisis), 28% of French people say that their beauty routine has changed. There is a significant difference between men and women with respective scores of 20% and 36%. At the same time, nearly half of French adults say that their beauty routine has not changed (49%). 54% of French people say they have spent less than 30 minutes a day on their beauty routine since the start of the pandemic, a stable figure compared to last year (56%). (YouGov France) (Germany) Almost Every Third German Has Experienced Bullying In The
Workplace Almost one in four Germans (23 percent) stated that they had offers of help for victims of bullying in their company or their employer. These include personal contact points (13 percent), telephone consultation hours (4 percent) or self-help groups (2 percent). 34 percent say that there are no such offers at their job. 27 percent of all respondents would like to see more offers of help in their companies. This is what more women say than men (31 percent vs. 23 percent for men). (YouGov Germany) 27 Percent Of The German Citizens Entitled To Vote State
That They Will Vote For The CDU Only 13 percent said this about Armin Laschet and Robert Habeck, but about 26 percent about Annalena Baerbock. Söder also scores best when it comes to the aspect of “drive”: 59 percent of those in the know describe him as energetic, 30 percent of those who know about Baerbock, 25 percent about Laschet and 22 percent about Habeck. While Annalena Baerbock does better than her party colleague Robert Habeck in the two mentioned qualities (leadership & drive), both are considered equally likeable (49 percent each among connoisseurs). (YouGov Germany) April 1, 2021 (Italy) 3 Out Of 10 Italian Parents (28%) Consider That Distance
Learning, As It Is Now Practiced, Is Bad (20%) Or Very Bad (8%) In the three levels of education, the concerns are the same; Reduction in sociability (Elementary School 66%, Middle School 75%, High School 65%), Worsening of the emotional state (Elementary 58%, Middle School 65% and Higher 50%) and the risk of losing communication with teachers (Elementary School 56 %, Middle School 60% and High School 52%). (YouGov Italy) March 31, 2021 NORTH AMERICA (USA) Church Membership In The US Has Fallen Below The Majority
For The First Time In Nearly A Century The proportion of Americans who consider themselves members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped below 50 percent, according to a poll from Gallup released Monday. It is the first time that has happened since Gallup first asked the question in 1937, when church membership was 73 percent. The polling firm also found that the number of people who said religion was very important to them has fallen to 48 percent, a new low point in the polling since 2000. (The Washington Post) March 30, 2021 Most Democrats And Republicans Know Biden Is Catholic, But
They Differ Sharply About How Religious He Is Overall, roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults – including 63% of Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party, along with a slightly smaller majority of Republicans and Republican leaners (55%) – say Joe Biden is Catholic. Nearly nine-in-ten Democrats say that Biden is at least “somewhat” religious, including 45% who say they think he is a “very” religious person. By contrast, almost two-thirds of people who identify with or lean toward the GOP (63%) say that Biden is “not too” or “not at all” religious. (PEW) MARCH 30, 2021 Stem Jobs See Uneven Progress In Increasing Gender, Racial
And Ethnic Diversity Black workers comprise 11% of all employed adults, compared with 9% of those in STEM occupations. Their share is lower in some STEM job clusters, including just 5% in engineering and architecture jobs. There has been no change in the share of Black workers in STEM jobs since 2016. STEM workers are about twice as likely as other workers to have earned a bachelor’s degree or more education (67% vs. 34%) and roughly three-quarters of these workers hold a degree in a STEM field. (PEW) APRIL 1, 2021 American Public Opinion And Gun Violence An AP/NORC poll in December showed that 5% of Americans mentioned gun issues as one of the issues they wanted government to be working on in 2021, well below mentions of such issues as COVID-19, healthcare reform, the economy, jobs, the environment, education, racial inequities and immigration. Dissatisfaction with the nation's gun laws was at 56% this year, close to the average for the 21 issues tested in the January 2021 poll but substantially below dissatisfaction with issues such as the nation's efforts to deal with poverty and homelessness and the state of race relations. (Gallup US) APRIL 2, 2021 7% Of Americans Don’t Use The Internet Today, 25% of adults ages 65 and older report never going online, compared with much smaller shares of adults under the age of 65. The share of offline adults ages 50 to 64 has dropped 8 percentage points since 2019, from 12% to 4%. The shares of offline Black and Hispanic adults have also fallen significantly during that period, from 15% to 9% among those who are Black and from 14% to 5% among those who are Hispanic. (PEW) APRIL 2, 2021 AUSTRALIA 15.3 Million Australians (72.4%) Are Now Aware Of
Buy-Now-Pay-Later Services Such As Afterpay, Zip, Latitude Pay, Humm And
Openpay Main rival Zip is also making a significant impression on the Australian marketplace with nearly half of Australians (48.6%) now aware of Zip – an increase of 30.5% points since September 2018. In February 2021 over a fifth of Australians, 20.3%, were aware of Latitude Pay, and over one-in-ten were aware of either Humm (11.5%) or Openpay (11.3%). These new digital payment findings are from Roy Morgan Single Source, Australia’s leading consumer survey, derived from in-depth interviews with around 50,000 Australians annually. (Roy Morgan) March 29 2021 Over 2.6 Million Australians Watch AFLW On Tv On
the eve of 2021 AFLW Finals the latest data from Roy Morgan shows over 2.6
million Australians aged 14+ (12.4%) watched AFLW matches on TV in the year
to December 2020. This represented a small increase of 4,000 (+0.2%) on a
year earlier but was down on the record high viewership reached during 2020.
Viewership of AFLW has held relatively steady over the last few years since
the competition first began in February 2017 and closely tracks the number of
Australians who have attended at least one AFL match in the last 12 months. (Roy
Morgan) March
29 2021 Allianz Tops Customer Satisfaction Ratings For Holders Of
Risk And Life Insurance Policies Allianz
topped the list with a satisfaction rating of 87.3%, averaged over the 12
months to February 2021. This is rise of 2.6% since December 2020. It was
followed by Medibank on 81.9% (down 0.5% on two months earlier), the Zurich
Group (OnePath, Macquarie Life and Zurich brands) on 77.6% (down 1.5%),
Westpac on 74.5% (down 0.5%) was closely followed by MLC Life on 74.4% (up
2.9%), then AIA Group (AIA Australia and CommInsure) on 71.3% (up 1.9%) and
TAL Group (Asteron, Insuranceline, Suncorp and TAL) on 67.2% (down 1.3%). AMP
was a distant last on 54.4%. (Roy
Morgan) March
30 2021 MULTICOUNTRY STUDIES Many In U.S., Western Europe Say Their Political System
Needs Major Reform Since 2017, the French and German publics have also become more trusting of government. In France, just 20% said they trusted the government to do what is right for the country in 2017, compared with 55% in the new survey. In France, 80% of those who say the country is handling the outbreak well trust the government, compared with only 27% of those who say the country is doing a poor job. While more than half of Americans say they generally trust the government to do what is right, fewer than half (45%) are satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country. (PEW) MARCH 31, 2021 ASIA
684-43-01/Poll 4 In 10 Pakistanis Are Hopeful That Their Household’s Financial Situation Will Improve In The Next 6 Months
(Islamabad), March 30, 2021 According to a Dun&Bradsheet and Gallup Pakistan Consumer Confidence Index survey, 41% Pakistanis are hopeful that their household’s financial situation will improve in the next 6 months. This Press Release is composed of a question that was covered as part of Gallup Pakistan & D&B Consumer Confidence Index for Q—2020-21. A nationally representative sample of adult men and women from across the four provinces was asked the following question, “What do you expect your household’s financial situation to be in next 6 months?” In response to this question, 6% said ‘Will be a lot better’, 35% said ‘Will be better’, 24% said ‘No change’, 12% said ‘Will be worse’ and 7% said ‘Will be a lot worse’. 16% did not know/did not respond. Question: “What do you expect your household’s financial situation to be in next 6 months?” (Gallup Pakistan) March 30, 2021 Source: https://gallup.com.pk/post/31622 684-43-02/Poll 56% Of Households Had Fixed-Line Telephones, But Only 24% Of People'use' Fixed-Line TelephonesDifferences in the results of public
opinion polls according to the ratio of the sample mixture of wired and
wireless phones (Gallup Korea) 2021/04/01 Source: https://www.gallup.co.kr/gallupdb/columnContents.asp?seqNo=128 AFRICA
684-43-03/Poll Ugandans Grow More Discontent With Economic And Living Conditions, Afrobarometer Study Shows
Ugandans’ assessments of the country’s economy and their personal living conditions worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, wiping out gains between 2017 and 2019, according to the most recent Afrobarometer survey in Uganda. Poor and older citizens, rural residents, and those living in the Northern and Eastern regions were more affected than their counterparts. More than half of citizens said the pandemic caused a household member to lose a job, a business, or a primary source of income. Overall, a majority of Ugandans gave their government poor marks on improving the living standards of the poor and job creation, and most saw its economic policies as harmful rather than beneficial. (Afrobarometer) 30 Mar 2021 WEST
EUROPE
684-43-04/Poll Nine In Ten Teachers (91%) Say They Would Be Opposed To Extending The Typical School Day For The Current School YearVast majority of teaching staff oppose changing school day and summer holiday dates Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, has said the government is considering various measures to help students catch up on schooling missed as a result of the pandemic. Among the proposals being considered are extending the length of the school day, and decreasing the amount of time students spend on the summer holiday. YouGov’s latest Teacher Track survey shows that the overwhelming majority of teaching staff across Great Britain are opposed to such measures. Nine in ten teachers (91%) say they would be opposed to extending the typical school day for the current school year to help students make up for lost teaching time during the pandemic, including three quarters (76%) who strongly oppose the idea. Only 8% are favour of extending the school day.
This opposition is universal across both primary and secondary level teachers, with 91% and 92% of teachers respectively opposed to longer school days. While the majority of teachers across different types of schools are opposed, those teaching in private and independent schools are less likely to be opposed (81%) compared to 93% of teachers in local authority managed schools. Extending the summer term is equally unpopular Educators are also strongly opposed to shortening this year’s summer holiday to provide more time to catch students up. Some 89% of teachers are opposed, including another three quarters (76%) who are strongly opposed to the idea. Only 10% are in favour - a similar to those in favour of extending school days. Opposition is again consistent among teachers at primary (89%) and secondary level (92%). However, among independent and private school teachers, nearly one in five (19%) would support cutting the summer holiday back in favour of an extended summer term – however the majority (79%) are still opposed. (YouGov UK) March 30, 2021 684-43-05/Poll 52% Agree That They Will Lead To An Unequal Society By Restricting What People Who Haven’t Received The Vaccine Can DoA new Ipsos MORI UK KnowledgePanel poll has found the public support using ‘vaccine passports’ across a range of circumstances. There is particularly strong support for their use for people who are travelling abroad (78%), for visiting relatives in hospitals (74%) or care homes (78%). Seven in ten say they should be needed to go to the theatre or an indoor concert (68%), while six in ten support needing one to go to the pub or eat out in a restaurant (62%), or to go to the gym (63%).
However, there are some notes of caution in the findings. One in five think the ethical and legal concerns outweigh any potential benefits to the economy (22%), and half say that vaccine passports may lead to inequalities (52% agree that they will lead to an unequal society by restricting what people who haven’t received the vaccine can do). There are also important differences by age, ethnicity and deprivation. For example, younger people, ethnic minority Britons, and those in more deprived areas express more concern about the legal and ethical issues, and are less likely to support their use. These groups have seen the lowest levels of vaccine confidence.
Our UK KnowledgePanel findings show that
the public are once again prepared to do what it takes to get out of this
pandemic. While they recognise the issues around vaccine passports,
particularly their potential to exacerbate existing inequalities, their potential
importance to ending lockdown and reopening the economy has won the argument
for the majority of the British public. (Ipsos MORI) 31 March 2021 684-43-06/Poll Life After Brexit – Britons Predict More Expensive Food Prices And Falling Eu Migration
Food prices Britons do not have a positive outlook when it comes to Brexit’s effect on food prices, 6 in 10 (61%) say Britain’s exit of the EU will make food prices more expensive. A quarter believe it will make little difference to the price of food, while only 5% think they will become cheaper. Migrants entering the UK Only 13% of Britons expect more migrants to come to the UK from EU countries because of Brexit, half believe the number of people moving here will decrease. Around a quarter (27%) believe Brexit will make little difference.
Holidays Over half of Britons expect Brexit to make it harder to go on holiday within the EU (55%), only 4% expect holidays to countries closes to them to get easier while a third (32%) say there will be no difference. Considering holidays outside of the EU, 15% say they are more likely to consider a holiday further afield as a result of Brexit while 1 in 10 (11%) say they are now less likely to do so. Two-thirds say Brexit will make little difference when choosing which country to visit on holiday. Impact on sectors of the British economy According to Britons, the sector most likely to be negatively affected by Brexit is transportation and haulage, 6 in 10 (58%) believe Brexit will have a negative impact on this sector while only 14% believe effects will be positive.
Professional services (e.g. law and accountancy), the NHS and financial services and insurance are expected by most to see no impact as a result of Brexit (47%, 40% and 37% respectively). All sectors considered in this survey are more likely to be expected to be negatively impacted than positively impacted by Brexit. Would we rejoin the EU? Despite relatively negative expectations for the future as a result of Brexit, opinion remains largely split as to whether Britons would like to rejoin the EU in the next 10 years. Just over two-thirds (35%) would like to see Britain join the EU again in the next decade while a similar proportion disagree (37%).
Britain’s relationships When it comes to relationships, Europe is still seen as the most important to the UK (30%) compared to the Commonwealth (26%) and the US (18%). However, this has fallen significantly since last asked in September 2020 (41%) with the importance of the Commonwealth growing, from 20% in 2020 to 26% now.
Over the next five to ten years, Britons expect the EU-UK relationship to negatively impact Britain’s economy (41% compared to 29% who believe it will have a positive effect) and their own lives (26%), 17% expect it to affect them positively. Opinion is split when considering the impact the relationship will have on British society and Britain’s defence and security. Almost 3 in 10 (27%) say it will have a positive effect on British society over the next 5-10 years, the same proportion believe the impact will be negative. Similarly, a quarter (25%) say Britain’s defence and security will be positively impacted while 27% believe it will have the opposite effect. Kelly Beaver, Managing Director of Public Affairs at Ipsos MORI, said: We have seen from other Ipsos MORI polling
that The Government’s current vaccine success has provided a halo effect when
it comes to our relationship with the EU, but this latest data illustrates
that Britons still have significant concerns about life after Brexit.
More people think they will be negatively impacted than positively,
including concerns about rising food prices, summer holidays to countries in
the EU, and haulage and automotive industries. Interestingly, despite these
concerns, there is still no majority wanting to rejoin the EU. Paul Adamson, Chairman of Forum Europe and the EU|UK Forum says: A large majority of respondents - as in the
2019 and 2020 polling - indicate that it it will be important for Britain to
have a close relationship with the EU and a significant proportion recognise
that there are still many important issues to finalise in that relationship.
However, it is now viewed as automatic with respondents evenly divided as to
whether a close relationship is likely or not. (Ipsos MORI) 1 April 2021 684-43-07/Poll 35% Of Britons Have A Favourable View Of The Labour LeaderA Labour government still looks a long way
off With Keir Starmer celebrating his first year of Labour leader on 4 April, we’ve taken a look at the Labour leader’s performance over the last 12 months. Favourability For most of his first year, Keir Starmer’s favourability ratings have been both positive and superior to those of his Conservative counterpart Boris Johnson. Things started to take a turn for the worse in late January, however, with Starmer’s reputation going into rapid decline. As of 1 April, Starmer’s net favourability score stands at -11, his second worst showing to date, although this does represent an improvement from the nadir of -18 in early March. Currently 35% of Britons have a favourable view of the Labour leader, compared to 46% who have a positive view. One in five (19%) still don’t hold an opinion of Starmer.
Worse still for Labour, Boris Johnson’s reputation is being rebuilt. He overtook Starmer in the favourability ratings in early March, with a less-bad score of -11, and has since recovered to -1. Among Labour voters, Starmer maintains a positive favourability score, at +26. Nevertheless, this too represents a decline from his heyday in 2020, with Starmer peaking at +59 among his own party’s voters in June. Britons are split on how well Starmer has
been doing as leader While Starmer might not be particularly popular, do Britons at least thing he has been doing his job well? Opinion in this regard is mixed. A separate YouGov study conducted for The Times finds that one in five (21%) think he has been a good or a great leader, while a further third (36%) say he has been an average one. A quarter think that has been a poor or terrible leader (26%).
Labour voters assess their party’s leader somewhat more positively. One in three (34%) think he has been good or great, while an identical proportion consider him bang average. One in five say he has been poor or terrible. Could anyone else have done better? Starmer took office at an unprecedented time. It’s hard enough for oppositions to catch the media’s attention during normal times, but the coronavirus crisis has pulled focus and left the Labour leader with one arm tied behind his back. Our results show that Britons think that Starmer has done the best he could with a bad hand. Four in ten (41%) said of the party leader: “he has made mistakes, but has done as well as he reasonably could have done given the circumstances”.
This is the most common view among all main voting groups, including 45% of Labour voters. A further one in five (20%) believe Starmer “has done a bad job and made crucial mistakes that could have been avoided”, outnumbering the 13% who said “he has done a good job, making the right decisions to hold the government to account and make the party more electable”. Labour voters are more likely to take the positive view than the negative, however, with 23% thinking Starmer has done a good job on his own terms, versus 16% who think he has done an actively bad job. Personal attributes Recent months have also taken their toll on people’s views of Starmer as a person. Currently Starmer is seen more negatively than positively when it comes to being a strong leader (-14), decisive (-14), trustworthy (-9), and likeable (-5). In all four cases, the transition between overall positive to overall negative took place since late January. The only attribute Starmer still does well on is competence. Currently 35% of Britons see the Labour leader as competent, compared to 28% who see him as incompetent, giving a net score of +7. Even this represents a marked decline from +21 in late January. Poor as many of these scores are, Starmer does still lead Johnson on competence, trustworthiness and particularly decisiveness. Making Labour a prospective government Starmer is currently failing in his task of making himself and his party look like a plausible alternative to Boris Johnson and the Conservatives. Fully half of Britons (52%) say they don’t see Starmer as a prime minister in waiting – twice as many as can envisage him walking through the door of Number 10. This represents a substantial decline since last year – until November Britons tended to think that Starmer did seem like a potential PM.
When compared directly against Boris Johnson for the top job, the Labour leader comes off worse. Having led the race from August to February, Starmer currently finds himself ten points behind Johnson on who Britons think would make the better leader, at 37% to 27%. While Labour continue to be seen as the party better place to manage areas they are traditionally associated with – the NHS, unemployment, education, housing – they still trail far behind on the crucial category: the economy. Currently 19% of people see the party as the best potential custodians of the nation’s finances, barely changed from the 16% who thought so at the start of Starmer’s tenure, and still half the number who say so of the Conservatives (40%). (YouGov UK) April 03, 2021 684-43-08/Poll 86% Of French People Read At Least One Book In 2020, 6 Points Less Compared To 2019The French are still very numerous to read (more than 80% of the French have read at least one book during the year), even if 2020 is marked by a drop in reading , certainly linked to the constraints imposed by the health crisis. The decrease in travel in general and the closures of reading places (bookstores, libraries) are probably one of the factors of this decrease. The French probably wanted to better understand the world and to decipher the crisis we went through: they read more books of reports and news (essays, biographies ...), but fewer novels (-7 points) and of practical books (-7 points).
However, more French people say they have read more than before . As teleworking has greatly developed, the porosity between reading related to work or studies and reading for pleasure has not played in favor of the latter.
The French associate very positive values with reading , which is a source of pleasure (+8 points), of learning and discovery of new things (+ 13 points) and of happiness and fulfillment (+20 points).
For young people, the idea that books provide an escape is also very important (23%). A desire for easier reading , but also for online discussions and recommendations. The French are very attached to their bookstores . 80% of buyers say they bought books there in 2020. (Ipsos France) March 30, 2021 684-43-09/Poll Nearly Half Of French Adults Say That Their Beauty Routine Has Not Changed (49%)The beauty routine includes all the products and actions carried out on the skin, to heal and enhance it. This can consist of putting on make-up or applying care such as, for example, moisturizer. In comparison with last year (before the health crisis), 28% of French people say that their beauty routine has changed. There is a significant difference between men and women with respective scores of 20% and 36%. At the same time, nearly half of French adults say that their beauty routine has not changed (49%). 54% of French people say they have spent less than 30 minutes a day on their beauty routine since the start of the pandemic, a stable figure compared to last year (56%). Use of products dedicated to the beauty
routine
To note :
Conversely, creams and treatments seem particularly popular. Indeed, nearly one in two French people (46%) say they use face cream more often. The same goes for body creams, used more frequently by 32% of respondents. Evolution of the frequency of purchase of products dedicated to the beauty routine Many women have bought makeup less frequently since the start of the pandemic. In retail, 40% buy lipstick less often, 29% foundation, 26% mascara and 25% eye shadow. Conversely, face cream is the product whose frequency of purchase has increased the most (28%) among women.
Has the average monthly budget been impacted? According to the results of our survey, the average monthly budget devoted to the beauty routine has been revised downwards since the start of the health crisis. We have seen a decrease of € 8 , with an average budget that has fallen from € 43 per month before the start of the pandemic, to € 35 per month since. Note: before the health crisis, 18-34 year olds spent an average monthly budget of € 46 against € 37 since the pandemic. Are the French more concerned with the composition of the products they use? 28% of French people say they pay more attention to the composition of the products used in their beauty routine . 50% of 18-24 year olds say they pay more attention to it compared to 21% of 55 and over. In this regard, a gap is also noticeable between men (18%) and women (36%). Towards a future without make-up? Between the normalization of telework and the generalization of the mask, 30% of women say that they are more easily able to assume without makeup and to reveal their skin naturally. At the same time, 37% of them say that they already assumed without make-up, even if they put on make-up from time to time. According to the results of our survey, more than one in two women (56%) is ready to adopt the “No make-up” trend. In addition, we see that the 18-34 year olds welcome this trend particularly well, at 64%. (YouGov France) Source: https://fr.yougov.com/news/2021/04/02/limpact-du-covid-19-sur-la-routine-beaute-des-fr/ 684-43-10/Poll Almost Every Third German Has Experienced Bullying In The WorkplaceBullying means the repeated and regular harassment, torture and harm of an individual by a group or individual. This can happen, for example, in school, at work, but also on the Internet (cyber bullying). Almost every third German (29 percent) states that they have been bullied at work themselves, women more often than men (35 percent vs. 22 percent for men). That is the result of a current survey in cooperation with Statista. 17 percent of Germans have already experienced bullying by a colleague or a supervisor and 4 percent have already actively participated in bullying at work. 53 percent of Germans state that they have not had any bullying experience themselves, which in turn is more men than women (58 percent vs. 49 percent for women). 81 percent of those who have been bullied at work or have experienced it at colleagues / superiors state that the bullying was carried out in direct social interaction. 8 percent found out about it via email, 7 percent via social media, 6 percent via the phone and 4 percent via a messenger.
MEN TEND TO CHOOSE THE PATH OF DIRECT
CONFRONTATION, WOMEN MORE OFTEN SEEK OUT A FAMILIAR If they were themselves affected by bullying in the workplace, 39 percent of Germans would speak directly to their supervisor or seek a conversation with the bullying person (s). 34 percent would turn to someone they trust and 18 percent to a contact point for victims of bullying in their company. 15 percent would change jobs and 10 percent would go to an external counseling center. 9 percent would do nothing and wait and see.
It is noticeable that men in particular would choose the path of direct confrontation. For example, 41 percent stated that they would like to speak to a supervisor directly (vs. 37 percent of women) or that they would like to talk to the bully (s) (42 percent vs. 36 percent of women). Women would consult with someone they trust in their company or with their employer more often (38 percent vs. 29 percent of men). EVERY FOURTH GERMAN WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE
OFFERS OF HELP IN THE COMPANY Almost one in four Germans (23 percent) stated that they had offers of help for victims of bullying in their company or their employer. These include personal contact points (13 percent), telephone consultation hours (4 percent) or self-help groups (2 percent). 34 percent say that there are no such offers at their job. 27 percent of all respondents would like to see more offers of help in their companies. This is what more women say than men (31 percent vs. 23 percent for men).
(YouGov Germany) Source: https://yougov.de/news/2021/03/31/jeder-dritte-deutsche-hat-schon-einmal-mobbing-am-/ 684-43-11/Poll 27 Percent Of The German Citizens Entitled To Vote State That They Will Vote For The CDUStrong movement in voting intentions -
Great losses at the Union, gains at the Greens, the FDP and the SPD 27 percent of the German citizens entitled to vote state that they will vote for the CDU / CSU if there would be a general election next Sunday. This value is 6 percentage points lower than in February 2021 and 9 percentage points lower than the January result (36 percent).
The result of the SPD, however, can make up one point again: The Social Democrats landed in March at 17 percent. The Greens can increase by 3 percentage points compared to the previous month and come to 21 percent. The FDP also scored again in March and ended up with 2 percentage points more than in February at 10 percent of the voting intention of German voters. The AfD and the Left remain stable compared to the previous month (AfD 11 percent, the Left 8 percent). The other parties get 6 percent of the vote.
SÖDER IS MOST OFTEN SEEN AS A STRONG
LEADER, LASCHET AS CLOSE TO THE CITIZEN, HABECK & BAERBOCK AS PERSONABLE
AND CLEVER Among those Germans who know the candidates for the candidacy for chancellor from Union (Armin Laschet and Markus Söder) and the Greens (Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock), 66 percent attribute leadership strength to Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder. Only 13 percent said this about Armin Laschet and Robert Habeck, but about 26 percent about Annalena Baerbock. Söder also scores best when it comes to the aspect of “drive”: 59 percent of those in the know describe him as energetic, 30 percent of those who know about Baerbock, 25 percent about Laschet and 22 percent about Habeck. While Annalena Baerbock does better than her party colleague Robert Habeck in the two mentioned qualities (leadership & drive), both are considered equally likeable (49 percent each among connoisseurs). The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Laschet, on the other hand, is most often attributed proximity to the citizen among connoisseurs (42 percent vs. 37 percent for Habeck, 33 percent for Baerbock and 25 percent for Söder). When it comes to understanding and cleverness, i.e. expertise, the Greens boss scores: 42 percent of those in the know think Annalena Baerbock is clever and understanding, 41 percent Robert Habeck. 32 percent of those in the know attribute Markus Söder to expert knowledge and Armin Laschet 27 percent.
That is the result of the current Sunday question, for which 1,637 people out of 2,054 survey participants entitled to vote submitted their voting intention between March 25, 2021 and March 29, 2021. (YouGov Germany) April 1, 2021 Source: https://yougov.de/news/2021/04/01/sonntagsfrage-talfahrt-bei-cducsu-soder-gilt-als-f/ 684-43-12/Poll 3 Out Of 10 Italian Parents (28%) Consider That Distance Learning, As It Is Now Practiced, Is Bad (20%) Or Very Bad (8%)The distance learning has become one of the restrictions related to COVID-19 become a problem in Italy. From north to south, parents, teachers and students have been clamoring for the reopening of classrooms and the return of face-to-face lessons. But what is the direct experience of the parents? One in four parents has a generally positive opinion of DAD in elementary, middle and high schools. The most negative opinion is for middle school, where about 3 out of 10 parents (28%) consider that distance learning, as it is now practiced, is bad (20%) or very bad (8%). The possible effects of Dad on children and adolescents The distance learning is a major change in the school environment and may have negative consequences for children and adolescents, both long and short term. The lack of sociability and the possibility of isolation are the main negative consequences of DAD according to the parents. In the three levels of education, the concerns are the same; Reduction in sociability (Elementary School 66%, Middle School 75%, High School 65%), Worsening of the emotional state (Elementary 58%, Middle School 65% and Higher 50%) and the risk of losing communication with teachers (Elementary School 56 %, Middle School 60% and High School 52%). Among the aspects that worry parents least we find the growth in spending due to the increase in meals (elementary 8%, middle school 10% and high school 6%). Regarding the differences between men's and women's concerns about the effects of DAD, we note that men are more concerned, in general, about the socialization of children in elementary and middle school (22% of men think this is the main criticality of distance learning, compared to 16% of women), while women are more concerned about the emotional health of their children (17% think that this is the main criticality of DAD, compared to 13% of men who think the same).
(YouGov Italy) March 31, 2021 Source: https://it.yougov.com/news/2021/03/31/scuola-e-covid-19/ NORTH
AMERICA
684-43-13/Poll Church Membership In The US Has Fallen Below The Majority For The First Time In Nearly A CenturyThe proportion of Americans who consider themselves members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped below 50 percent, according to a poll from Gallup released Monday. It is the first time that has happened since Gallup first asked the question in 1937, when church membership was 73 percent. In recent years, research data has shown a seismic shift in the U.S. population away from religious institutions and toward general disaffiliation, a trend that analysts say could have major implications for politics, business and how Americans group themselves. In 2020, 47 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. The polling firm also found that the number of people who said religion was very important to them has fallen to 48 percent, a new low point in the polling since 2000. For some Americans, religious membership is seen as a relic of an older generation, said Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and a pastor in the American Baptist Church. Gallup’s data finds that church membership is strongly correlated with age: 66 percent of American adults born before 1946 belong to a church, compared with 58 percent of baby boomers, 50 percent of Generation X and 36 percent of millennials. Burge said many Christians still attend church but do not consider membership to be important, especially those who attend nondenominational churches. But no matter how researchers measure people’s faith — such as attendance, giving, self-identification — Americans’ attachment to institutional religion is on the decline.
Burge, who recently published a book about disaffiliating Americans called “The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going,” predicts that in the next 30 years, the United States will not have one dominant religion. “We have to start thinking about what the world looks like in terms of politics, policy, social service,” Burge said. “How do we feed the hungry, clothe the naked when Christians are half of what it was. Who picks up the slack, especially if the government isn’t going to?” The coronavirus pandemic, which forced most churches to close in March 2020, has caused a major disruption to American religious life, with most people unable to join weekly mass gatherings. But polls have not found a dramatic impact on Americans’ religiosity in the past year. Americans are more likely than people in other countries to say that their religious faith has become stronger during the pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center. Tara Isabella Burton, author of “Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World,” attributes the national decline in religious affiliation to two major trends among younger Americans. First, she points to broader shifts suggesting a larger distrust of institutions, including police and pharmaceutical companies. Some Americans are disillusioned by the behavior of religious leaders, including the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal and the strong White evangelical alignment with former president Donald Trump. Southern Baptists see historic drop in membership The other major trend Burton describes is how people are mixing and matching from various religious traditions to create their own. Many people who don’t identify with a particular religious institution still say they believe in God, pray or do things that tend to be associated with faith. “Why shouldn’t I pray or meditate or attend a liturgy, or perhaps I feel closer to the divine when I can do something privately rather than something that’s prescribed for me,” she said. “It’s my own spin on it.” Younger generations that grew up with the Internet have a different kind of relationship with information, texts and hierarchy, Burton said. “Existing trends in American religious life were exacerbated by generations that grew up in Internet culture that celebrates ownership — the idea that you can re-create a meme or narrative,” she said. “You have ownership over curating your own experience.” Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, argued in a recent essay for the Atlantic that what was once religious belief has been replaced by political belief in many communities. On the political right, he said in an interview, conservative Christians focused on Trump as a political savior rather than focusing on their traditional questions of morality. Christians in the Republican Party, he said, are being less defined by their faith than by a set of more narrow concerns. And on the political left, Hamid said, strains of “wokeism” have taken up religious notions like sin and excommunication and repurposed them for secular ends. Hamid said that because there aren’t clear leaders, such as priests or imams, or a transcendent source that defines belief, the standards for what is considered “woke” continues to change. “The vacuum [of religion] can’t just remain a vacuum,” Hamid said. “Americans are believers in some sense, and there has to be structures of belief and belonging. The question is, what takes the place of that religious affiliation?” (The Washington Post) March 30, 2021 Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/03/29/church-membership-fallen-below-majority/ 684-43-14/Poll Most Democrats And Republicans Know Biden Is Catholic, But They Differ Sharply About How Religious He IsJoe Biden is just the second Catholic president in U.S. history, after John F. Kennedy. Most U.S. adults know that Biden is Catholic, including majorities within both major political parties, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. But partisan similarities in views about Biden’s religion end there. Republicans and Democrats have vastly different views about how religious Biden is and whether he talks about his religious faith too much, too little or the right amount. This political divide extends even to Biden’s fellow Catholics, who are deeply split along party lines over whether Biden’s views about abortion should disqualify him from receiving Communion.
Overall, roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults – including 63% of Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party, along with a slightly smaller majority of Republicans and Republican leaners (55%) – say Joe Biden is Catholic. Most of the remainder say they are not sure what Biden’s religion is, while about one-in-ten say that Biden practices a religion other than Catholicism or that he is not religious. A small handful of Republicans volunteer that Biden is a “fake Catholic” or a “Catholic in name only,” or offer other insulting comments. While majorities in both parties know that Biden is Catholic, they disagree profoundly about the role of religion in his private and public life. Nearly nine-in-ten Democrats say that Biden is at least “somewhat” religious, including 45% who say they think he is a “very” religious person. By contrast, almost two-thirds of people who identify with or lean toward the GOP (63%) say that Biden is “not too” or “not at all” religious.
On the whole, the share of Americans who say Biden is a “very” or “somewhat” religious person has risen from 55% in February 2020 to 64% today. Over that period, there has been a particularly pronounced increase in the share of Americans who say Biden is “very” religious (from 9% in February 2020 to 27% today). But virtually all of this increase has happened among Democrats; among members of Biden’s own party, 13% described him as very religious early last year, compared with 45% today. It is possible that Democrats heard Biden talking about his faith on the campaign trail and since his election. Religion has been a consistent theme in his remarks in recent months, from the Democratic National Convention to his victory speech in November to his inauguration in January. While eight-in-ten Democrats (79%) say Joe Biden mentions his religious faith and prayer about the right amount, fewer than half of Republicans (42%) agree. Even among Biden’s fellow Catholics, partisanship permeates views of Biden’s religion. Nine-in-ten Democratic and Democratic-leaning Catholics say they think Biden is at least somewhat religious, including half who say he is “very” religious. Among Republican and Republican-leaning Catholics, by contrast, a 56% majority say Biden is “not too” or “not at all” religious. And while eight-in-ten Catholic Democrats say they think Biden discusses his faith “about the right amount,” barely half as many Catholic Republicans say the same (42%). The survey finds, furthermore, that a slim majority of Catholic Republicans (55%) think that Biden’s views about abortion should disqualify him from receiving Communion in the Catholic Church. But nearly nine-in-ten Catholic Democrats (87%) come down on the other side of this question, saying that Biden should be allowed to receive the Eucharist. Biden has said that he wants to make Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion nationwide, the “law of the land,” among other policy changes. As a result, some Catholic clergy have called for Biden to be denied Communion, and U.S. bishops may produce a document on the issue.
These are among the key findings of a new Pew Research Center survey conducted March 1-7, 2021, among 12,055 U.S. adults (including 2,492 Catholics) on the Center’s online, nationally representative American Trends Panel. More information on how the survey was conducted is available in the methodology. In addition to asking about whether Biden should be allowed to receive Communion, the survey also asked Catholics whether, in general, Catholic politicians who disagree with the church’s teachings about a variety of issues should be allowed to go to Communion. Overall, three-in-ten Catholics say that Catholic political figures who disagree with church teaching about abortion should be barred from Communion.1 But fewer say this should be the case for those who disagree with the church over homosexuality (19%) or the death penalty (18%), and just one-in-ten say Catholic politicians who disagree with the church’s teachings on immigration should be disqualified from receiving the Eucharist.2
On the other two issues raised in the survey – the death penalty and immigration, where Catholic teaching might best be described as “liberal” within the U.S. political context – there are no such partisan differences. Large majorities of Catholics in both parties say that Catholic politicians who disagree with the church about these issues should be able to present themselves for Communion.
Most U.S. adults do not know Vice President
Harris’ religion The public is less familiar with Vice President Kamala Harris’ religious identity than with Biden’s, and fewer people say they think Harris is a religious person than say the same about Biden. Two-thirds of U.S. adults say they are not sure what Harris’ religious identity is, while just 12% say that she is a Protestant (Harris identifies as Baptist). About half of U.S. adults say they think Harris is a “very religious” (8%) or “somewhat religious” person (38%), while the other half say that she is “not too religious” (28%) or “not at all religious” (23%). Again, Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to see Harris as at least somewhat religious (69% vs. 19%), although equal shares in both parties say they do not know what Harris’ religion is (64% each). The remainder of this report explores these and other findings in more detail. Six-in-ten U.S. adults know Biden is
Catholic Two-thirds of U.S. Catholics, including three-quarters of White Catholics, know that Joe Biden shares their religious identity. Three-quarters of U.S. Jews also know that Biden is Catholic, as do two-thirds of self-described atheists and agnostics. Among Black Protestants and those who describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” roughly half or fewer are able to identify Biden’s religion.
Americans are far less familiar with Kamala Harris’ religion than with Biden’s. Overall, about two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) say they are not sure what the vice president’s religion is. One-in-eight (12%) correctly describe Harris as Protestant, while 3% say she is Hindu. Harris’ mother was from India and her father was from Jamaica, and “she was raised on Hinduism and Christianity,” according to Religion News Service. Majorities across a wide variety of religious groups say they are not sure what Harris’ religion is. Jews, Black Protestants and self-described atheists and agnostics are able to correctly identify Harris’ religion at slightly higher rates than those in some other religious groups. Still, even among these most knowledgeable groups, only about one-in-five know that Harris is Protestant. While Democrats and Republicans are equally likely to say they don’t know what Harris’ religion is, there are differences among those who do give a response. Democrats are more likely to say that Harris is Protestant (18% vs. 7%), while Republicans are more inclined to say that she does not have a religion (15% vs. 3%). Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults say Biden
is at least somewhat religious; fewer say the same about Harris Across a variety of religious groups, sizable majorities say they think Biden is at least somewhat religious, ranging from 60% of White Protestants who are not evangelical to 87% among Black Protestants. There is just one exception to this pattern: Only one-third of White evangelical Protestants (35%) say they think Biden is a religious person, while almost two-thirds (63%) say he is “not too” or “not at all” religious. Fewer people in most religious groups say they think Harris is a “very” or “somewhat” religious person. Here again, the view that Harris is a religious person is most common among Black Protestants (78%) and least common among White evangelical Protestants (20%). These differences among religious groups are in line with patterns of partisanship: Black Protestants are among the most strongly and consistently Democratic constituencies in U.S. politics, while White evangelical Protestants are among the most reliably Republican groups.
Six-in-ten say Biden talks about his faith
‘about the right amount’ Six-in-ten U.S. adults say they think Biden mentions his religious faith and prayer “about the right amount,” while the remainder are divided as to whether he discusses his faith “too much” (14%) or “too little” (21%). Majorities of people in nearly every religious group analyzed express
the view that Biden discusses his religion the appropriate amount, topping
out at 78% among Black Protestants. White evangelicals are the only group in
which fewer than half of respondents say Biden discusses his faith “about the
right amount” (41%); a similar Respondents who identify as atheist or agnostic are more likely than other Americans to say Biden discusses his faith too much (28%), but still, two-thirds in this group say Biden talks about religion the right amount (68%). Four-in-ten weekly Mass attenders say
Biden, other politicians who disagree with the Catholic Church about abortion
should not be allowed to go to Communion U.S. Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week are considerably more likely than those who attend Mass less often to say that politicians who disagree with the church’s position on abortion should be ineligible for Communion (42% vs. 24%). Weekly churchgoers also are more inclined than other Catholics to say disagreements over homosexuality and the death penalty are cause for barring politicians from the Eucharist. But there are no differences among Catholics based on frequency of church attendance when it comes to whether politicians who disagree with the church about immigration should be able to receive Communion.
Catholics ages 50 and older are a bit more likely than younger Catholics to say politicians who support abortion rights should be ineligible for Communion, while younger Catholics are slightly more likely than their elders to say a politician who disagrees with church teachings about capital punishment or immigration should be disqualified from Communion. More specifically, four-in-ten Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week say that Biden’s views about abortion should disqualify him from receiving the Eucharist – 15 points higher than the share who say this among those who attend Mass less often. White Catholics and those 50 and older are somewhat more inclined than Hispanic Catholics and those under 50 to say Biden should not be allowed to go to Communion. (PEW) MARCH 30, 2021 684-43-15/Poll Stem Jobs See Uneven Progress In Increasing Gender, Racial And Ethnic DiversityBlack and Hispanic workers remain underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce compared with their share of all workers, including in computing jobs, which have seen considerable growth in recent years. The representation of women varies widely across STEM occupations. Women make up a large majority of all workers in health-related jobs, but remain underrepresented in other job clusters, such as the physical sciences, computing and engineering. Current trends in STEM degree attainment appear unlikely to
substantially narrow these gaps, according to a Pew Research Center analysis
of federal employment and education data. What’s a STEM job? This analysis of the STEM workforce relies on a broad-based definition of those working in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). STEM jobs are defined solely based on occupation and include any of 74 standard occupations in life sciences, physical and Earth sciences, engineering and architecture, computer and math occupations as well as health-related occupations including healthcare providers and technicians. See the Appendix for specific occupations in each job cluster. What’s a STEM degree field? This analysis of STEM degree recipients relies on a broad-based definition of STEM degrees including degrees in life sciences, agriculture and environmental sciences; physical and earth sciences; engineering and architecture; computer and information sciences; math and statistics; and health-related fields. In 2018, 424 bachelor’s, 427 master’s, 336 research doctorate and 44 professional doctorate programs were classified as STEM using the six-digit Classification of Instructional Programs scheme from the National Center for Education Statistics. While there is often considerable overlap across definitions, there is no commonly agreed definition of the STEM workforce or STEM education fields. Thus, caution is warranted in direct comparisons with other studies. These findings come amid longstanding efforts to increase diversity in STEM and as the growth in STEM jobs is expected to outpace that of non-STEM jobs in the coming years. STEM occupations continue to rank higher on the pay scale, with the typical STEM worker earning more than those in other occupations. The gap in STEM workforce representation is especially large for Hispanic adults. Hispanic workers make up 17% of total employment across all occupations, but just 8% of all STEM workers. Their share of all STEM workers is up 1% since 2016, in line with their growth in the overall workforce. Black workers comprise 11% of all employed adults, compared with 9% of those in STEM occupations. Their share is lower in some STEM job clusters, including just 5% in engineering and architecture jobs. There has been no change in the share of Black workers in STEM jobs since 2016. The long-term outlook for diversity in the STEM workforce is closely tied to representation in the STEM educational system, particularly across the nation’s colleges and universities. STEM workers are about twice as likely as other workers to have earned a bachelor’s degree or more education (67% vs. 34%) and roughly three-quarters of these workers hold a degree in a STEM field.1 There has been dramatic growth in the number of STEM graduates from U.S. colleges and universities at all degree levels since 2010. Even so, there is little indication that diversity in related jobs will shift substantially in the near term.2 Black and Hispanic adults are underrepresented among STEM college graduates compared with their share in the population, and a smaller share are earning degrees in a STEM field than in other degree programs. Black students earned 7% of STEM bachelor’s degrees as of 2018, the most recent year available, below their share of all bachelor’s degrees (10%) or their share of the adult population (12%). The share of Hispanic college graduates with a STEM degree –12%– remains lower than that for all college graduates (15%) in 2018.3 Asian and White students remain overrepresented among STEM college graduates compared with their share of all college graduates in 2018. Students from other groups, including Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and people who identify with two or more racial groups, are earning bachelor’s degrees in STEM in rough proportion to their share of all degree recipients. Black and Hispanic adults are also underrepresented among those earning advanced degrees in STEM, especially among those earning Ph.D. or other research doctorates. Representation of Black and Hispanic adults is lowest in math, physical sciences and engineering degree fields. Women earned 53% of STEM college degrees in 2018, smaller than their 58% share of all college degrees. The gender dynamics in STEM degree attainment mirror many of those seen across STEM job clusters. For instance, women earned 85% of the bachelor’s degrees in health-related fields, but just 22% in engineering and 19% in computer science as of 2018. In fields where women have been especially scarce, there have been incremental gains over the past decade. The share of women earning a degree in engineering is up 2 points since 2014 at the bachelor’s and master’s level. Women make up a quarter or fewer of workers
in computing and engineering, are overrepresented in health-related jobs In 2019, 19.1 million workers age 25 and older were employed in STEM occupations in the U.S., an increase of 1.8 million since 2016. Women make up half (50%) of those employed in STEM jobs, slightly higher than their share in the overall workforce (47%). Women’s representation across STEM occupations varies widely: they are heavily overrepresented among health-related jobs, the largest STEM occupational cluster, and underrepresented in several other occupational clusters. Women’s representation among the six STEM occupational clusters has not changed markedly since 2016. Women are 74% of healthcare practitioners and technicians, compared with 75% in 2016.
Women continue to be vastly underrepresented in the ranks of engineers and architects (15%), but their share has increased slightly from 14% in 2016. Women make up 40% of the nation’s physical scientists, up 1 percentage point since 2016. They are 48% of life scientists, compared with 47% in 2016. Women’s representation among mathematical workers has also slightly increased (46% to 47%). There is some variation in women’s representation across the jobs that comprise each of these clusters. Women have increased their share of employment in some of the higher profile health-related STEM occupations. Women are 38% of physicians and surgeons, up 2 percentage points from 2016. They are 33% of dentists, up 3 percentage points from 2016. Among optometrists, 46% are women, up 3 percentage points from 2016. Women are 64% of veterinarians, up 3 percentage points from 2016. And women are 33% of EMTs and paramedics, up 2 percentage points from 2016. In addition, the share of women working as atmospheric and space scientists (which is part of the physical scientist occupational cluster) rose sharply from 15% in 2016 to 24% in 2019. Hispanic and Black workers continue to be
underrepresented in the STEM workforce, while White and Asian workers are
overrepresented Hispanic workers are highly underrepresented in the STEM workforce – making up only 8% of STEM workers but 17% of total employment across all occupations. Their presence has increased by one percentage point in each of the six STEM occupational clusters since 2016, in line with their growth in the wider workforce.
To illustrate, Hispanic workers are 9% of those in health-related jobs (up from 8% in 2016), and they comprise 8% of those in computer jobs (up from 7% in 2016). See Appendix A for more. Black workers, who comprise 11% of total employment across all occupations, are 9% of STEM workers. This is unchanged from 2016. Black workers account for just 5% of engineers and architects and 7% of workers in computer occupations. The only STEM job cluster where Black workers are represented at the same level as their share in the total workforce is health-related STEM occupations. (They make up 11% of workers in these jobs, the same as in 2016). White workers constitute two-thirds of workers in STEM occupations (67%), more than their 63% share of workers across all occupations. White workers are particularly overrepresented among engineers and architects (they make up 71% of those employed in this STEM cluster). They constitute 62% of computer workers, a slight underrepresentation compared with the 63% all workers. Since 2016, the White share of employment has declined in all STEM occupation clusters, mirroring the general decrease in the White share of employment over all occupations.
Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and people who identify with two or more racial groups account for 3% of STEM workers. STEM workers often earn more than others,
but there are sizeable pay gaps for the typical STEM worker by gender, race
and ethnicity Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) occupational employment projections prior to the pandemic shows STEM employment growth is projected to outpace economy-wide employment growth from 2019 to 2029 (9.2% for STEM jobs vs. 3.7% overall). The bulk of the job gains in STEM occupations (1.7 million) are projected to occur in two STEM clusters: Nearly 1 million net new jobs are projected among healthcare practitioners and technicians, and roughly 600,000 among computer workers. An updated analysis from BLS, accounting for labor market shifts stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, points to strong gains in jobs related to research and development in STEM (including physical, engineering, life sciences and health-related job clusters). Jobs in specific occupations, such as epidemiologist, medical scientists, biochemists and biophysicists, and biological technicians are expected to see strong growth. The rise of telecommuting is expected to bolster ongoing demand for jobs in computer-related occupations, including software development. And some of the specific STEM occupations expected to see the most gains prior to the coronavirus outbreak, such as registered nurses, are still projected to see strong growth. Typical earnings for STEM workers are
highest for Asian men, lowest for Black and Hispanic women
In 2019, median earnings for full-time, year-round workers ages 25 and older in a STEM job were about $77,400. The comparable median for workers in other, non-STEM occupations was $46,900. Women in STEM jobs tend to earn less than men. The median earnings of women in STEM occupations ($66,200) are about 74% of men’s median earnings in STEM ($90,000). The gender pay gap in STEM jobs has narrowed from 72% in 2016. The gender pay gap in STEM is wider than in the broader labor market, however. In 2019, the gender pay gap across all occupations was 80%. The labor market wide gender pay gap has not narrowed since 2016. The racial and ethnic earnings gaps among STEM workers are substantial and have recently increased. The median earnings of Black full-time, year-round workers ages 25 and older in STEM occupations ($61,100) are 78% of the median earnings of White workers in STEM ($78,000). The gap has widened in recent years: In 2016, the Black-to-White earnings gap in the STEM workforce was 81%. The typical Hispanic worker in STEM earns about $65,000, or 83% of the typical White worker in STEM. Here too, the gap has widened: In 2016, the Hispanic-to-White pay gap in the STEM workforce was 85%. Asian workers in STEM tend to be paid more than comparable White workers in STEM, and that pay disparity has widened. The median annual earnings of an Asian full-time, year-round worker age 25 and older employed in a STEM occupation ($99,100) is 127% that of a comparable White worker. In 2016, the Asian-to-White earnings disparity was 125%.4 There is a gender pay gap among workers in each racial and ethnic
group, resulting in the highest earnings for the typical Asian man in a STEM
job and the lowest earnings for the typical Black and Hispanic women working
in STEM jobs. Such gaps echo those found for Training programs at U.S. colleges and
universities point to ongoing challenges for increasing diversity of STEM
workforce Roughly two-thirds of STEM workers (67%) have completed a bachelor’s or postgraduate education, and among these STEM workers, about three-quarters earned a degree in a STEM field. While the nation’s colleges and universities have increased the number of degrees awarded in STEM fields, there is little indication that the flow of degree recipients will dramatically increase gender, racial and ethnic representation in related job areas over the near term.
More Americans have been earning college degrees in recent years, and many more have been doing so in STEM fields. The growth in STEM degree recipients has far outpaced that for all degrees. Between 2010 and 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, the number of STEM bachelor’s degrees awarded grew by 62%, compared with 20% growth for all degrees. The number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in computer and information sciences roughly doubled from 2010 to 2018 (a 101% increase), and the number awarded in health-related fields grew almost as much over the same time period (an 87% increase). American citizens and permanent residents earn an overwhelming share
of STEM degrees at the bachelor’s and professional doctorate levels; they
make up a majority of master’s (67%) and research doctorate (61%) degree
recipients in STEM fields. The Some foreign students earning degrees in the U.S. later join the U.S. workforce through programs such as the H-1B visa or Optional Practical Training (OPT). Between 2004 and 2016, nearly 1.5 million foreign graduates stayed in the U.S. through the OPT program. More than half in the OPT program (53%) were approved for employment in STEM fields. An analysis by the Council of Graduate Schools finds enrollment of international graduate students dropped in 2020, raising questions about the future flow of international students to STEM employment in the U.S., however. Women are underrepresented in math,
physical sciences, computing and engineering, but not all STEM degree fields Women are more likely than men to enroll in college and to earn a bachelor’s degree. Women have been an increasing share of the college-educated workforce as well. As of the first quarter of 2019, the number of women effectively matched the number of men in the college-educated workforce for the first time. What is a professional doctorate degree? Professional doctorates usually prepare degree recipients to work in a specific field. Almost all STEM professional doctorates are awarded in health-related fields. Common health-related professional doctorates include doctor of medicine (MD), doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO), doctor of dental surgery (DDS) and doctor of physical therapy (DPT). Women earned a majority of all bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents in the 2017-2018 school year. But they accounted for 53% of degrees in STEM fields at the bachelor’s level and 48% at the research doctoral level. Women made up a larger share — 60% — of master’s degree recipients in STEM fields, especially in health-related degree programs such as nursing. Women also earned a 58% majority of professional doctorate degrees in the health sciences. They earned a smaller share of M.D. (48%) and D.D.S. and D.M.D. degrees (49%), however. Across all degree levels, women make up majorities of degree recipients in health-related fields and in the life sciences, which includes studies in agriculture, environmental sciences and biology. More men than women earned degrees in other STEM fields. Women earned between 36% and 40% of degrees awarded in the physical sciences across all degree levels in the 2017-2018 academic year. In math, 42% of bachelor’s and 36% of master’s degrees were earned by women; just 25% of math research doctorates were earned by women in 2018.
Black and Hispanic degree recipients are
underrepresented in STEM fields Prior to the pandemic, the share of Hispanics enrolled in college was increasing, and more Hispanics were earning bachelor’s degrees. In 2018, Hispanics earned 15% of all bachelor’s degrees, up six percentage points since 2010. The share of Hispanics earning a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field has increased (from 8% in 2010 to 12% in 2018). Hispanic enrollment in college has declined since the coronavirus outbreak, however, casting doubt on whether these gains will continue. Even with gains since 2010, Hispanic adults remain less likely than White, Asian and Black adults to earn a college degree and are underrepresented among STEM degree recipients.
Black students earned no more than 9% of the STEM degrees awarded in 2018 across bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, figures that have seen little change since 2010. Black students are especially underrepresented in math, engineering and physical science degree programs; they earned no more than 5% of master’s and research doctoral degrees in engineering or physical science during the 2017-2018 school year. Black students comprise just 3% to 4% of degree-recipients in mathematics at the master’s level and above. In computer science fields, Black students earned 9% of bachelor’s degrees, 13% of master’s degrees and 7% of all research doctorates over the 2017-2018 school year. Analysis of the Computing Research Association’s survey of Ph.D.-granting programs finds just 2.4% of new U.S. resident Ph.D. graduates in artificial intelligence (a subset of those in computer science, computer engineering and information programs) were Black and just 3.2% were Hispanic in 2019. Such figures speak to ongoing questions about whether the lack of diversity among workers contributes to biases in AI algorithms. Asian students are overrepresented in STEM fields at all degree levels compared with their share of all degree recipients. Asian students earned 10%-11% of STEM-related bachelor’s, master’s and research doctorate degrees in 2018. For comparison, Asian students earned 7% of all bachelor’s, master’s and research doctorate degrees over the same time period. White students are overrepresented in STEM fields, particularly at the doctoral level, compared with the share of all degree recipients. White students earned 67% of all research doctorates in a STEM degree field over the 2017-2018 school year; they earned 63% of all research doctorates awarded that year. The share of White students earning STEM degrees has gone down since 2010 across all degree levels, mirroring the decrease in the White share of the U.S. adult population. For instance, the share of White students earning STEM bachelor’s degrees declined from 67% in 2010 to 62% in 2018. |
