YouGov survey finds climate change considered third most serious threat globally, but UK public see population growth as greater cause for concern, reports BusinessGreen

The British public is far more concerned about the threat posed by population growth than it is about climate change, according to a YouGov survey published late last week.

The survey, which questioned more than 18,000 people in 17 different countries, found that while climate change is seen as the third most concerning issue globally, people in Britain feel armed conflicts and population growth pose a greater threat.

The study asked people to consider the threat posed by nine different issues - including global terrorism, population growth, energy scarcity and climate change - and rank them in order of what they consider to be the most serious. It also asked participants to identify which issue they considered as the most serious threat.

By taking an average of these two measures - to include both the breadth and density of concern in order to create a “share of concern” index - the research reveals that those most concerned about climate change are people in Hong Kong, Denmark and Sweden, with a 20 per cent, 16.2 per cent, and a 16 per cent share of concern for the issue respectively.

In contrast, the UK, US and Saudi Arabia were the three least-concerned countries about the issue, scoring 10.8 per cent, 9.2 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively. People in Britain expressed the highest concern of any country about global population growth, while those in Saudi Arabia felt most strongly about the threat of armed conflicts.

Overall, climate change achieved a 12.8 per cent share of concern, ranking behind only international terrorism and the threat of poverty as the most concerning issues globally.