G6: Environmental attitudes and behaviours

Short Description

This indicator will track changes in people’s attitudes and behaviours relating to the environment, such as the importance people place on environmental issues, as well as behaviours in key policy areas relating to care for the environment. This may include positive behaviours to support the environment and sustainable use of natural resources, such as waste, water and energy.

Readiness and links to data

This indicator is not available for reporting in 2023 in a finalised form. A revised interim indicator is provided here that presents data on self-reported pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours from 2 of Natural England’s nationally representative surveys:

1) The People and Nature Survey (PANS) which began collecting data for adults on an on-going basis from 2 April 2020.

2) The Children’s People and Nature Survey (C-PANS) which collects data for children twice yearly (beginning in 2021), once during school holiday-time and once in term-time.

More information on PANS and C-PANS methods, outputs and the full questionnaires, are available on the PANS homepage.

Notes on indicator

The children’s environmental protection metric and pro-environmental behaviours index are not directly comparable to the adults’ measures due to the use of different questions and pro-environmental statements.

Indicator components

Figure G6a: Percentage of adults in England reporting that protecting the environment is important to them, survey years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022

Table G6a: Percentage of adults in England reporting that protecting the environment is important to them, survey years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022

Year Don't know and prefer not to say Important Neither important nor unimportant Not important
2020/2021 0.00 86.00 11.10 2.90
2021/2022 0.00 86.40 10.90 2.70

Trend description for G6a

PANS results cannot yet show yearly trends. However, data show that 86% of adults reported that protecting the environment is important to them in both the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 survey years.

Assessment of change

No assessment of change was undertaken for this indicator as a suitable time series is not yet available in the Outcome Indicator Framework.

Figure G6b: Adults' pro-environmental behaviour score as an index from 0 to 100, England, survey years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022

Table G6b: Adults' pro-environmental behaviour score as an index from 0 to 100, England, survey years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022

Year Value
2020/2021 49.72
2021/2022 49.23

Trend description for G6b

PANS results cannot yet show yearly trends. However, data show that adults on average scored 49 out of 100 (in both the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 survey years) on an index of reporting no pro-environmental behaviours (0) to high engagement with pro-environmental behaviours (100).

Assessment of change

No assessment of change was undertaken for this indicator as a suitable time series is not yet available in the Outcome Indicator Framework.

Figure G6c: Percentage of children in England reporting that looking after the environment is important to them, survey years 2021 and 2022

Table G6c: Percentage of children in England reporting that looking after the environment is important to them, survey years 2021 and 2022

Year 1. not at all important 2 3 4 5. very important Don't know and prefer not to say
2021 0.80 1.70 14.70 34.10 45.40 3.20
2022 0.60 1.50 12.00 31.00 52.20 2.60

Trend description for G6c

C-PANS results cannot yet show yearly trends. However, data show that when asked about how important looking after the environment was to them on a scale of 1 (not at all important) to 5 (very important), around half of children (45% in 2021 and 52% in 2022) said ‘5’ and around one-third (34% in 2021 and 31% in 2022) said ‘4’.Less than 5% said ‘2’ or ‘1’ in both 2021 and 2022.

Assessment of change

No assessment of change was undertaken for this indicator as a suitable time series is not yet available in the Outcome Indicator Framework.

Figure G6d: Children's pro-environmental behaviour score as an index from 0 to 100, England, survey years 2021 and 2022

Table G6d: Children's pro-environmental behaviour score as an index from 0 to 100, England, survey years 2021 and 2022

Year Value
2021 42.82
2022 45.28

Trend description for G6d

C-PANS results cannot yet show yearly trends. However, data show that children on average scored 44 out of 100 (43 in 2021 and 45 in 2022) on an index of reporting no pro-environmental behaviours (0) to high engagement with pro-environmental behaviours (100).

Assessment of change

No assessment of change was undertaken for this indicator as a suitable time series is not yet available in the Outcome Indicator Framework.

Indicator Metadata