People in UK least likely to say work is important in their lives

Global survey finds contrasting views on attitudes towards work around the world and across different age groups

Overall, 73 per cent of people in the UK said work was very or rather important in their lives, compared to at least 97 per cent in the Philippines, Indonesia and Nigeria. Bloomberg

People in the UK are among the least likely to view work as very important in their lives and to think it should always come first, research has shown.

The British public is also more likely now than 40 years ago to say that it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work, according to the survey, but there are differences in attitudes between the generations.

More than half of UK millennials – people in their late 20s to early 40s – who took part in the World Values Survey in 2022 said it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work, up from 31 per cent in 2005.

The survey focused on data collected from people in 24 countries.

The results, analysed by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, found that views among the two oldest generations went in the opposite direction, with only a third (34 per cent) of people aged in their late 50s to late 70s and a fifth of the pre-war generation (22 per cent) thinking it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work.

Overall, 73 per cent of people in the UK said work was very or rather important in their lives, which put them slightly behind Russians and Canadians.

The Philippines, Indonesia and Nigeria all had 97 per cent or more respondents saying work was very important in their lives.

A little more than a fifth (22 per cent) of people in the UK said work should always come first, even if it means less spare time, ahead of only Australia, Canada and Japan.

Between 1981 and 2022, the share of the British public who said it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work rose from 26 per cent to 43 per cent.

Almost four in 10 UK survey respondents said they believe hard work usually brings a better life, and the proportion who said they think both hard work and luck are equally important for success rose from 40 per cent to 49 per cent between 1990 and 2022.

“The UK is among the least likely from a wide range of countries to say work is important to their own life, that it should be prioritised over spare time or that hard work leads to success and that not working makes people lazy,” said Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

He added that there were different views between generations in the UK, with older generations more likely to say work should be prioritised.

Millennials have become much more sceptical about prioritising work as they have made their way through their careers, he added.

“There will be a number of explanations for these shifts, from the nostalgia that tends to grow as we age, in thinking younger generations are less committed than we were, and the long-term economic and wage stagnation that will lead younger generations to question the value of work,” he added.

“But the data also shows a long-term shift in preferences for work-life balance across a wide range of richer countries, where over the last 40 years across many major economies, more now say that it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work.”

A total of 3,056 adults were interviewed by Ipsos in the survey through a mix of face-to-face and online methods. The researchers said analysis of trends excluded Northern Ireland as there was a lack of available data.