🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Europe · where this nation sits on each axis, and how it answers item by item.
Economic
MarketState
Mean -32.5 · median -40.7 · n=116 · ±9.2 · weighted
Social
TraditionalProgressive
Mean 12.21 · median 3.0 · n=116 · ±9.2 · weighted
Sovereignty
NationalGlobal
Mean 4.34 · median -6.9 · n=116 · ±9.2 · weighted
Force
RestraintIntervention
Mean 9.83 · median 7.3 · n=116 · ±9.2 · weighted
Weighted to United Kingdom's adult population on age, gender and education. Benchmark: World Bank World Development Indicators (UN World Population Prospects age/sex structure; UNESCO UIS educational attainment) (2024).
Item by item
| Question | Side A | Neither | Side B | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A We should buy things from whoever makes them best and cheapest, wherever they are. B We should protect our own key industries, even if that means we pay more at home. |
30.44% | 36.27% | 33.29% | 108 |
| A AI should be run by the countries and firms that build it. B Powerful AI should be run by a world body, not by those who build it. |
60.82% | 12.18% | 27.0% | 111 |
| A If machines take the jobs, people must retrain and move on. B If machines take the jobs, the state must guarantee an income. |
43.29% | 22.62% | 34.09% | 112 |
| A In the last year, have you had enough food to eat? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Health care should mostly be bought and sold, with help for those who cannot pay. B The state should provide health care, free when you need it. |
44.98% | 21.48% | 33.54% | 105 |
| A Buying fuel from a government you attack in public is not worth it. B Keeping the lights on comes first, even if the fuel comes from a bad government. |
22.36% | 27.51% | 50.13% | 113 |
| A Build more homes and let the market set the rent. B Cap what landlords are allowed to charge. |
45.88% | 20.77% | 33.34% | 110 |
| A Is the water where you live safe to drink? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Big private fortunes are earned, and should not be capped. B When a few people hold so much wealth, taxes should bring it back down. |
46.59% | 18.21% | 35.2% | 111 |
| A Where a border has already moved by force, it is better to accept it than fight on. B A border moved by force should never be accepted, whatever it costs. |
55.28% | 20.29% | 24.43% | 112 |
| A A shorter working week would leave us all poorer. B A four-day week should be the normal week. |
43.96% | 31.05% | 24.99% | 113 |
| A Do you have electricity when you need it? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Water, power and trains work better when private firms compete to run them. B Water, power and trains should be owned by the public, not run for profit. |
52.25% | 16.34% | 31.41% | 111 |
| A Each country should decide for itself how many refugees it takes, if any. B Rich countries owe it to the world to take a share of refugees. |
63.03% | 10.28% | 26.69% | 110 |
| A What you leave your children is your own business. B What one person leaves behind should be taxed heavily. |
41.57% | 18.04% | 40.38% | 111 |
| A Is your home dry, warm enough and in good repair? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Free trade and business have done more to end poverty than state help has. B State help has done more to end poverty than free trade and business have. |
48.37% | 9.76% | 41.87% | 111 |
| A Making some things and buying the rest is how a modern economy works. B A country that cannot make its own chips, medicine and food is not truly free. |
17.18% | 23.96% | 58.86% | 110 |
| A If you gain from a degree, you should pay for it. B A place at college should be free for everyone. |
39.99% | 21.83% | 38.18% | 111 |
| A At the end of the month, is there money left over? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Rules on business usually do more harm than good. B Rules on business are needed to keep people safe. |
49.28% | 17.29% | 33.43% | 111 |
| A The price of food should be set by the market. B The state should cap the price of basic food. |
45.14% | 19.46% | 35.4% | 109 |
| A Do you feel safe walking alone near your home at night? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Money from the state should go to people who work, or who clearly need it. B The state should pay everyone enough to live on, with no strings. |
48.2% | 14.02% | 37.79% | 110 |
| A You should be 18 before you can vote. B Sixteen-year-olds should be able to vote. |
39.45% | 24.32% | 36.23% | 111 |
| A Can you say what you think in public without fear? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A A firm should be run by the people who own it and the bosses they pick. B Workers should have seats on the board of every large firm. |
46.51% | 20.16% | 33.33% | 110 |
| A Parents, not the state, should decide what children see online. B Children under 16 should be kept off social media by law. |
33.23% | 32.37% | 34.4% | 107 |
| A Are you treated with respect by people in authority? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A A government should balance its books, even if that means cutting services. B A government should borrow to keep services going, rather than cut them. |
51.0% | 12.32% | 36.69% | 110 |
| A Young people should be free to choose their own path. B A year of national service should be required of the young. |
29.43% | 30.08% | 40.49% | 109 |
| A Can you see a doctor when you need one? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Letting firms from abroad invest in our oil, gas and metals brings in money and skills. B Our oil, gas and metals should stay in our own hands, not be sold abroad. |
26.95% | 19.62% | 53.44% | 113 |
| A Schools should teach children to question their country's story. B Schools should teach children to be proud of their country. |
29.13% | 19.73% | 51.15% | 103 |
| A Can you get online when you need to? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A The old kind of family is what holds a society together. B A society is stronger when all kinds of family are treated the same. |
51.01% | 15.81% | 33.18% | 110 |
| A The law should never help anyone end a life. B People who are dying should be allowed help to end it. |
50.4% | 16.37% | 33.24% | 109 |
| A Can the children you know get a decent education? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Too many newcomers puts our way of life at risk. B Newcomers add more to our way of life than they take away. |
59.24% | 14.11% | 26.65% | 110 |
| A How we farm animals is a matter of cost and choice. B Factory farming should be phased out. |
47.57% | 26.45% | 25.98% | 110 |
| A Can you travel to work or market without great difficulty? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Faith should help shape the laws of a country. B Laws should be made without looking to any faith. |
45.43% | 20.63% | 33.93% | 113 |
| A A country may set low taxes to attract business. B Tax havens should be shut down by world agreement. |
62.8% | 7.09% | 30.12% | 113 |
| A Compared with five years ago, is your life better or worse? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Each society should keep marriage as it has always been. B Two men, or two women, should be able to marry in any country. |
51.19% | 18.09% | 30.72% | 109 |
| A What a country finds in space belongs to that country. B Space, and all that is in it, belongs to everyone. |
51.4% | 25.8% | 22.81% | 112 |
| A Will the next generation's life be better or worse than yours? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A People should be free to say hurtful things without the state stepping in. B The state should stop speech that puts down small groups. |
40.68% | 26.42% | 32.9% | 112 |
| A Firms that develop medicines should keep the rights to them. B When a plague hits, the whole world should be free to copy a drug. |
63.11% | 15.29% | 21.6% | 111 |
| A Do the people in charge listen to someone like you? B |
0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 116 |
| A Taking drugs for fun should stay against the law. B Taking drugs for fun should no longer be a crime. |
44.84% | 25.74% | 29.42% | 109 |
| A A leader can only be put on trial by their own country. B Any leader can be put on trial by a world court. |
54.86% | 22.89% | 22.25% | 113 |
| A Whether you are a man or a woman is set at birth. B Whether you are a man or a woman is for you to say. |
44.13% | 24.81% | 31.06% | 114 |
| A The waters near a country belong to that country. B The sea and the fish in it belong to all of us. |
51.2% | 25.64% | 23.16% | 106 |
| A A country should move on from old wrongs, not keep going back to them. B A country should own up to old wrongs, and pay those it harmed. |
59.82% | 14.01% | 26.17% | 108 |
| A Each country should set its own rules for the internet. B The internet needs one set of rules for everyone. |
58.12% | 23.45% | 18.43% | 110 |
| A Keeping order matters more than letting people be themselves. B Letting people be themselves matters more than keeping order. |
45.57% | 19.84% | 34.58% | 110 |
| A Nobody should ever be forced to fight. B If the country is attacked, everyone must serve. |
30.17% | 24.71% | 45.12% | 112 |
| A The law should limit abortion in most cases. B A woman should be able to end a pregnancy if she asks. |
49.32% | 19.66% | 31.02% | 111 |
| A We should not sell arms to countries at war. B Selling arms is how friends stay able to defend themselves. |
29.91% | 25.29% | 44.79% | 109 |
| A No court outside our country should overrule the leaders we elect. B World courts should be able to overrule the leaders a country elects. |
62.74% | 17.23% | 20.03% | 111 |
| A Answering an attack on computers with force goes much too far. B A big attack on our computers can be answered with force. |
39.72% | 31.99% | 28.29% | 112 |
| A A country has every right to choose who may cross its border. B Where you were born should not decide where you may live. |
59.02% | 14.23% | 26.76% | 110 |
| A Peace troops rarely help and often make things worse. B The world should keep a standing peace force ready. |
48.09% | 23.42% | 28.49% | 115 |
| A Each country should set its own limits on the gases it gives off. B The same limits on gases should be set for every country, rich or poor. |
65.79% | 12.58% | 21.63% | 111 |
| A You do not spy on your friends. B Every country spies on everyone, and should. |
36.08% | 20.95% | 42.96% | 110 |
| A The UN veto matches real power, and keeps big states at the table. B The UN veto gives too much power to too few countries. |
57.22% | 26.88% | 15.91% | 110 |
| A Watching a border with armed drones goes too far. B A country may use armed drones to guard its border. |
26.93% | 24.64% | 48.42% | 109 |
| A Trade deals mostly help the rich and cost ordinary workers. B Trade deals help ordinary people more than they hurt them. |
58.56% | 19.88% | 21.56% | 110 |
| A You owe more to your own country than to the world as a whole. B You owe more to the world as a whole than to any one country. |
69.1% | 13.63% | 17.27% | 109 |
| A A country should pick who moves in, based on what it needs. B People should be free to live and work in any country they choose. |
64.7% | 18.26% | 17.04% | 108 |
| A Each country should set its own tax on firms, and compete for their money. B Big firms should pay the same lowest tax rate all over the world. |
61.09% | 11.89% | 27.02% | 109 |
| A Borders should stay as they are, even if a region wants to break away. B If a region votes to break away, it should be allowed to. |
51.26% | 21.25% | 27.48% | 112 |
| A A country should keep full control of its own money. B A country gains more than it loses by sharing control of money with others. |
60.27% | 16.75% | 22.98% | 113 |
| A Sending in troops from outside usually makes the killing worse, not better. B It is right to send troops to stop mass killing in another country. |
33.6% | 22.59% | 43.8% | 110 |
| A Cutting off trade is wrong when it makes ordinary people go hungry. B Cutting off trade is a fair tool, even when ordinary people suffer. |
24.63% | 22.78% | 52.59% | 110 |
| A We already spend enough, or too much, on our armed forces. B We should spend more on our armed forces. |
29.48% | 21.88% | 48.63% | 111 |
| A Nuclear arms make disaster more likely, and should be got rid of. B Nuclear arms keep the peace by making war too costly. |
31.87% | 29.62% | 38.51% | 110 |
| A There is no fight that talking cannot end in the end. B Some enemies stop only when they are stopped by force. |
31.19% | 30.81% | 38.0% | 111 |
| A Sending arms into a war makes it last longer and kills more people. B When a country is invaded, sending it arms is the right thing to do. |
32.3% | 25.7% | 42.0% | 111 |
| A Killing someone abroad without a trial is never right. B It is sometimes right to kill an enemy fighter abroad. |
24.56% | 33.57% | 41.88% | 111 |
| A No country should meddle inside another, whatever is going on there. B What a country does to its own people can be the world's business. |
42.87% | 27.73% | 29.4% | 111 |
| A We should not go to war over someone else's quarrel. B We should be ready to go to war to defend a friend. |
52.19% | 21.68% | 26.13% | 112 |
| A Money spent on arms would do more good spent on helping poor countries. B Spending on arms buys the safety that everything else rests on. |
33.67% | 27.52% | 38.81% | 112 |
| A Which comes closest to the work you do? B |
0.0% | 2.21% | 97.79% | 116 |
| A How steady is that work? B |
0.0% | 21.54% | 78.46% | 116 |
| A Do you work more hours than you would like? B |
0.0% | 21.12% | 78.88% | 116 |
Where United Kingdom sits
Measured national facts — not opinion, and not a substitute for it. Each figure is the most recent observation published for this country, and carries its own year.
|
Income per person
World Bank / ICP · 2025
|
$53,993 |
higher than most countries
|
|
Income inequality (Gini)
World Bank PovcalNet/PIP · 2021
|
32.4 0–100 |
somewhat below the middle
|
|
Unemployment
ILO modelled estimate · 2025
|
4.7% |
close to the middle
|
|
Tax revenue
IMF Government Finance Statistics · 2024
|
26.9% |
among the highest in the world
|
|
Health spending
WHO Global Health Expenditure · 2024
|
11.1% |
among the highest in the world
|
|
Urban population
UN World Urbanization Prospects · 2025
|
83.3% |
higher than most countries
|
|
Using the internet
ITU · 2024
|
95.5% |
higher than most countries
|
|
Tertiary enrolment
UNESCO UIS · 2023
|
80.4% |
higher than most countries
|
|
Life expectancy
UN World Population Prospects · 2024
|
81.4 years |
higher than most countries
|
|
Births per woman
UN World Population Prospects · 2024
|
1.6 |
somewhat below the middle
|
|
Trade openness
World Bank national accounts · 2025
|
62.5% |
somewhat below the middle
|
|
Foreign direct investment
IMF Balance of Payments · 2025
|
1.9% |
close to the middle
|
|
Born in another country
UN DESA migrant stock · 2024
|
17.1% |
higher than most countries
|
|
Military spending
SIPRI · 2024
|
2.3% |
somewhat above the middle
|
|
Armed forces personnel
IISS Military Balance · 2020
|
153,000 |
higher than most countries
|
|
Homicides
UNODC · 2021
|
1.1 per 100,000 |
somewhat below the middle
|
Ranked against every country with a published figure for the same series. Sources: World Bank World Development Indicators, which republish UN, ILO, UNESCO, WHO, SIPRI, IISS and UNODC data.