Britain is hugely divided across cultural, age and education lines, a major study of national attitudes has concluded, warning of a potential rise in far-right and anti-Islam sentiments unless politicians tackle long-standing disaffections behind the Brexit vote.

There is a particular chasm between people living in affluent, multicultural cities and those from struggling post-industrial towns, according to the report from Hope Not Hate, based on six years of polling and focus groups.

The study by the anti-fascism advocacy group, “sets out to understand the drivers of fear and hate” in England, and where data is available, in Wales and Scotland. It uncovers the often glaring extent of geographic splits between people of varying attitudes, with opposition to immigration and multiculturalism correlating closely with socio-economic deprivation.

It found that of the 100 areas where people were most likely to oppose immigration, all were in towns or on the outskirts of cities, with 93 of them in the Midlands or north of England.

In contrast, the 100 areas most linked with what the report calls the “confident multicultural” population were all in major cities or close to universities, with 90% of them within a few hundred metres of a university.

Another key finding of the 60-page report, which links Hope Not Hate’s years of polling 43,000 people with data from other organisations, is that while overall attitudes to multiculturalism are softening, the opposite is happening with Islam.

It found that between 2011 and 2018, the proportion of people who believed immigration as a whole had been good for Britain rose from 40% to 60%.

On attitudes specifically to Islam, however, the report found that while these softened between 2011 and 2016, this process then reversed, something it put down the series of terror attacks in the UK in 2017 and media coverage of sexual grooming gangs in places such as Rotherham.

The most recent polling by the group, of more than 10,000 people in July, found 32% of people believed there were Muslim “no-go areas” in Britain governed by Sharia law, a view endorsed by 49% of leave voters in the Brexit referendum.

An attempt to locate centres of strongly anti-Muslim or far-right sentiment, done by mapping the locations of people who signed an online petition seeking the release from prison of the anti-Islam activist known as Tommy Robinson, found a strong link to the deprived towns associated with Brexit and more general opposition to immigration.

Conversely, the study concluded, areas where people feel more in control of own lives and optimistic about their futures “become more resilient to hateful narratives and to political manifestations of this hatred”.

It found that such divisions closely correlate with people’s votes over Brexit, noting that opposition to the EU and prejudice towards Islam “are clearly interlinked issues for many”.

But, it warned, departure from the EU alone is extremely unlikely to tackle the reasons why people in such poorer towns and city suburbs tend to be wary of change and hostile to immigration.

In particular, it found, reducing immigration levels alone will not alleviate anxiety about new arrivals, not least since those most likely to express those views are based predominantly in areas where few immigrants actually live.

The report concluded that people in deprived communities often saw immigration as part of “a broader story about dissatisfaction with their own lives”, repeating stories from the media about immigrants supposedly receiving preferential treatment from public services.

“Immigration has become a totemic emblem for the many grievances people feel in modern Britain,” said Nick Lowles, the chief executive of Hope Not Hate, in an introduction to the report.

“The strong view in many of these communities is that they have been abandoned and left to rot by the political establishment in preference to addressing the needs and wishes of new arrivals in the cities.”

The only way to tackle such views would be to rebuild such neglected communities, Lowles said, “equipping their young people with the skills that will enable them to compete more effectively in the modern global world and, fundamentally, giving them a sense of hope in the future”.

Another key divide, also strongly manifested in the Brexit vote, is age, with younger people found to be notably less likely to see immigration as a significant national problem or to worry about Islamist terrorism.

Education was another significant split. Of people with degrees or higher qualifications, 76% believe immigration has been good for the country, against 45% of those whose schooling ended at 16.

While affluent people in cities tended to be more optimistic about the future than those in deprived towns, this process was reversed when it came to one thing: Brexit.

The polling found that confidence among metropolitan liberals plummeted in the wake of the referendum result. Even two years after the Brexit referendum, 71% of remain voters said they felt pessimistic for the future compared with just 35% of leave supporters.

East Marsh and Castle: a tale of contrasts

Hope Not Hate identify two places as a study in contrasts: East Marsh in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and the Castle area of Cambridge. They are, the report says “each one of two Englands, emerging as the most hostile and most confidently multicultural places on our heatmap”.

Grimsby as a whole is marked by deprivation and decline, caused by a diminished industrial base and fishing trade, as well as low skill levels.

The East Marsh estate, just south of the docks, is particularly struggling and was measured in 2011 as the second-most deprived area in England and Wales, with 44% of its children and young people living in poverty. Life expectancy at birth in the area is 10 years less than for the rest of Grimsby.

Interviews in the area for the report uncovered a sense of loss at the decline in fishing and the associated prosperity and worries about immigration.

One interviewee complained the immigrants were “just coming in and taking our resources”. They added: “I’ve got to wait until I’m 67 instead of retiring at 60 now to get my pension.”

In contrast, the study highlights Castle as emblematic of the urban-based, university-linked areas most commonly associated with the so-called “confident multiculturals”, those at ease with a changing UK.

A central area of Cambridge, Castle covers St John’s College and the surrounding, prosperous residential area. Its levels of income, employment and adult skills are among the country’s highest.

As tends to be the case for areas with fewer worries about immigration, Castle has above-average levels of black and minority ethnic residents, at 42%.

The report says: “Many of its residents are employees of Cambridge university and many more are students residing in and around the grounds of the impressive, elite colleges. The area is both pretty and prosperous, where few of its residents are dependent children or retirees. Economic concerns are uncommon in areas such as this.”