10.3886/ICPSR03099.v2 Social and Community Planning Research Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research 2001 attitudes charitable donations economic conditions economic issues education employment European unification expectations government programs government spending health care services housing internal political conflict labor markets local government lotteries morality national economy newspapers occupations party affiliation political knowledge political participation public confidence science education social attitudes social change social issues transportation trends values voter registration voting behavior welfare services 2001-06-18 2006-07-26 1996-05 1996-08 survey data 3099 2 This survey is part of a continuing series designed to monitor trends in a wide range of social attitudes in Great Britain. The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is similar to the General Social Survey carried out by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) in the United States. The BSA questionnaire has two parts, one administered by an interviewer and the other completed by the respondent. As in the past, the 1996 interview questionnaire contained a number of "core" questions covering the major topic areas of defense, the economy, labor market participation, and the welfare state. The 1996 self-enumerated questionnaire was devoted to a series of questions on a range of social, economic, political, and moral issues. Topics covered (by section) are: (1) newspaper readership, (2) party identification, (3) housing, (4) electoral registration, politics, and political knowledge, (5) public spending, welfare benefits, and health care, (6) economic activity, labor market, and learning (including respondent's occupation), (7) scratchcards (the lottery), (8) social divisions, (9) political trust and Europe, (10) Northern Ireland, (11) taste and decency, (12) classification, (13) countryside, (14) transportation, (15) public understanding of science, (16) education, (17) local authority spending, (18) charitable giving, and (19) welfare/Social Security. An international initiative funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), also contributes a module to the BSA. The topic of the ISSP module in this collection was the role of government. Additional demographic data included age, education, income, marital status, and religious and political affiliations.