Alex Scholes is one of NatCen's senior social researchers, to find out more about the report's findings and what they mean.
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00:00We asked a battery of questions on levels of pride in history, achievements in arts and literature,
00:06achievements in sports, the way democracy works, our political influence in the world,
00:11as well as our economic achievements. And as you'd expect, there's been different changes
00:16in different metrics for those periods. But the one standout feature was that
00:20pride in our history has declined quite markedly in the last 10 years. So 86% of people in 2013
00:29said that they were proud or very proud of Britain's history. And that's dropped down
00:33by 22 percentage points to 64% in our latest survey. And that's the largest drop of any of
00:38the questions we asked in that battery. Some areas like Britain's achievements in the arts,
00:43literature and sports, they've remained quite strong. So why do you think there's
00:47there's pride in these areas that's remained resilient?
00:49There are two ways you can broadly conceive of your national identity in simple terms,
00:55one would be a civic conception or a more inclusive conception where you think anyone
01:00can be truly British say if they make the effort. On the other hand, you would have a more say
01:05ethnocentric or exclusivist conception of national identity where you think you really have to be
01:10born British to be truly British. And we broke down levels of national pride in those different
01:18elements, you know, so history, arts and literature, sports, by your conception of your
01:22national identity. And people with a more ethnic conception of national identity tend to take pride
01:29in different things to the more civic. So if you have a more ethnic conception of national identity,
01:34say, you're more likely to say pride in Britain's history than someone with a more civic conception.
01:39And since there's been a decline in the proportion of people with a more ethnic
01:42conception of national identity over the same period, that may go some way to explain why
01:49we're seeing a decline in, you know, the levels of pride in say Britain's history,
01:54and not the same levels, not the same decreases and say, you know,
01:57arts and literature and sports and things like that.