The share of the British public who feel proud of their country has dipped below half, falling to just 46% of people living in the UK.
This is according to a new study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London and Ipsos, which reveals that the UK public overwhelmingly feels that the country has become divided.
84% of those surveyed said the country feels divided, with 67% believing specifically that ‘culture wars’ are responsible for stoking this division.
The UK public is also becoming increasingly nostalgic for the past, with 50% responding that they believe UK culture is changing too quickly. Just under half said they would prefer the UK to be the way it used to be.
This nostalgia has risen across every age group, and the share of 16- to 24-year-olds who feel this way almost doubled to 31% over the last five years.
National pride is at its lowers levels amongst the young and ethnic minorities. Only 29% of 16- to 24-year-olds said they feel pride in their country, with 38% of ethnic minorities saying the same.
Reform UK voters are most likely to feel the country is divided, with this sentiment the least prevalent among Labour supporters. 83% of Reform UK voters believe the UK is divided by culture wars, and 88% believe the pace of cultural change in the UK is too fast.
Tension over immigration
While the percentage of the public who said they felt tension between immigrants and UK-born residents decreased from 2020 until 2023, it has recently seen a resurgence.
Currently, 86% of the public feel that there is tension between immigrants and people born in the UK, with Reform UK supporters most likely to support this view and the belief that there is a great deal of tension between these groups.
Despite this, tensions over Brexit have steadily calmed; just 52% of people now feel there is tension between Leavers and Remainers, down from 78% in 2020. People have also felt there is less tension between different social classes, with the proportion of Brits holding this view declining to 62%.
Perceived tension between political views is also on the rise, with 68% of people saying they believe there is tension between supporters of different political parties.
“This latest study shows a frightening increase in the sense of national division and decline in the UK in just a few years,” said Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
“We’ve seen steep rises in the beliefs that the UK is divided, that ‘culture wars’ are real and that things were better in the past. Two-thirds think the UK is now divided by culture wars, up from 46% five years ago. Half now say that we’re changing too fast and would like the country to be the way it used to be, both up from around a third in 2020.”
“Reform supporters stand out as particularly negative about the direction of the country and sense of division – an incredible 88% say they’d like the country to be the way it used to be, compared with just 20% of Green supporters” Professor Duffy said.
“But this points to the real challenge – that we now have incredibly different perspectives between different groups in the country, across party lines and by age group.”
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