SCOTLAND is the kindest part of the UK, new data has revealed.
The UK’s first ever quantitative survey carried out on kindness in communities and public services has revealed almost everyone in Scotland views their community as a kind place (94%) and most reciprocate by helping people in their area who need it (88%).
The findings coincide with World Kindness Day which is being celebrated across the world today.
The Ipsos Mori research, commissioned by Carnegie UK Trust, is part of the Trust’s new Quantifying Kindness report and commitment to exploring the extent to which communities are kind places and whether or not people experience kindness from each other and the services they use.
The researchers spoke to more than 4000 people across the UK.
The survey found in the UK high life satisfaction is linked to strong experiences of community kindness and those who have strong experiences of community kindness are likely also to experience high levels of life satisfaction.
In Scotland women are more likely than men to report strong experiences of kindness and those in rural areas are more likely to report community kindness than those in cities. There are significant differences between millennials in Scotland and the rest of the adult population with 16-34 year olds reporting much lower views on community kindness.
The majority of Scots report being highly satisfied with their life (84%) and 94% of Scots agreed that people in their local area are “generally kind”.
For public services, the survey found that people generally perceive public services as kind (from 83% of public transport users to 91% of GP users). GPs and public libraries are seen as the kindest public services in Scotland. Again there are differences across groups: Those in lower social grades (C2DE) are more likely to report strong experiences of kindness in all public services than those in higher social grades (ABC1).
Older people are more likely to report strong experiences of kindness in four of the five public services included in the survey (GPs, public libraries, social care services, public transport – but not police where there was no relationship with age).
Jennifer Wallace, head of policy at the Carnegie UK Trust, said: “Much is known at a psychological level about kindness as a relational concept and how it helps build a sense of belonging and contributes to wellbeing.
“Less is known about the extent to which our communities are kind places.
“This report presents the findings of the first, and largest, survey that explores this issue in depth.”
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