Love thy neighbour: How UK has grown to trust those next door

Norway, Sweden and Egypt top list as only countries where trust among neighbours is higher than in Britain

The World Values Survey found that people in Britain are more relaxed about having more varied neighbours. Bloomberg

The UK is one of most trusting countries when it comes to neighbours and people have become more comfortable living beside historically marginalised groups, a survey has suggested.

Britain has made more progress than many other countries — meaning it now ranks among the most open of places across the large-scale study into the liberalisation of social attitudes.

The research by the Policy Institute at King’s College London found as part of the long-running World Values Survey that people have become more relaxed about living next to others from different backgrounds and of different sexuality.

While nearly a third (31 per cent) of people asked in 1990 said they would not like to have gay people as neighbours, by 2022 this had fallen to 4 per cent.

Similarly, while previously almost a quarter (23 per cent) of the public said the same about people who have Aids, that figure has dropped to 4 per cent.

Between 1981 and 2022, the share of the public who said they would not want to live next to immigrants or foreign workers has fallen from 13 per cent to 5 per cent.

Over the same period, the proportion who said they would not like to live next to people of a different race dropped from 10 per cent to 1 per cent.

Overall, the British public’s trust in their neighbours has risen from 78 per cent in 2005 to 84 per cent in 2022.

South-west London. In England, 84 per cent of people were likely to trust those in their neighbourhood. PA

Of 24 countries, the UK is above the US, which scored 72 per cent, and behind only Egypt (86 per cent), Sweden (89 per cent) and Norway (90 per cent).

Within the UK, Northern Ireland is the nation where people are most likely to trust those in their neighbourhood, at 90 per cent compared to England (84 per cent), and Scotland and Wales (both 81 per cent).

“The UK public are highly trusting of the people in their neighbourhood and very comfortable being neighbours with a wide range of groups, compared with many other nations and our own past views," Prof Bobby Duffy of the university said.

“It seems absurd that as recently as 1990 nearly a third of people in the UK said they’d be uncomfortable with gay neighbours.

"But this is now down to just 4 per cent, and reflects a wider rapid change of attitudes, shown in increased acceptance of people from different races and immigrants.

“These shifts have been seen in other countries, too, but the UK has often shifted more than many others, putting us now among the most open countries in the study.”