Do people agree with the idea that everyone should have their basic needs met so that no one lives in poverty, and everyone can play a constructive role in society?

We asked this question of a nationally representative sample of 3,140 adults across Great Britain in April 2022 as part of a wider survey on fairness, and the results, shown here, showed that 76% agreed or strongly agreed overall.

As part of a wider survey in August 2022, we asked 2,000 adults across Britain to guess the current status of wealth inequality in the UK. The median estimate of wealth held by the richest 20% was very accurate, but people significantly overestimated the amount of wealth held by the poorest 20%.

We then asked the same group of people whether they thought that the real figures for wealth inequality were fair or unfair.

We asked half of the group whether they thought British society was fair or unfair before they had seen these figures, and the other half after seeing the figures. The percentage of people in the second group who thought British society was unfair was 27 percentage points higher than in the first group.