Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aim of this survey was to investigate attitudes among the general public to a number of environmental problems : to establish what people perceived as problems; the extent to which they could be alleviated; and where responsibility for alleviating these problems was seen to lie.

Main Topics:

Environmental problems: level of concern; local problems; most important local, national and global problems; scope for improvement; allocation of responsibility. Public willingness to pay for environmental improvements. Public concern about environment/pollution relative to other issues. Personal action to improve the environment. Other topics include: acid rain, green belt, modern methods of farming, trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth. Measures of public concern about the environment and pollution relative to other issues replicate those used in ORC surveys; those about trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth replicate those of the Euro-barometer series.

One-stage stratified or systematic random sample

constituencies stratified by region, urban/rural mix and social class. 81 constituencies were selected with probability proportional to size.

Face-to-face interview