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February 23, 2015

Magna Carta International Poll results released

Public awareness of Magna Carta was surveyed last month in 23 countries from Argentina to Canada, India to the US by the Ipsos MORI survey organisation for the Magna Carta 800th Commemoration Committee.

The results revealed that eight in ten (79%) British adults are ‘aware’ of Magna Carta, double the 23 country average level of recognition of 39%. Next highest, scoring in the 60s are the USA (65%), Hungary (63%), Italy (62%) and Spain (61%).

In contrast, just six per cent of adults in France say they are aware of Magna Carta, lower than other countries including Poland (10%), China (18%) and South Korea (21%).

Three in four (74%) British adults also claim they are aware of the 1776 US Declaration of Independence and two thirds (64%) the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights. Only one in five British adults said they were aware of the Commonwealth Charter – a document signed by Her Majesty Queen in 2013.

The poll also asked users to answer questions about which rights they thought were most under threat in their society today. This question was not asked in China.

The survey included a fictitious ‘International Declaration of Democracy of 1910’, inserted by the pollsters to check how many just guessed. In Britain, one in eleven (9%) mistakenly believe they know about this non-existent document.

To see the results of the 23 countries surveyed, click here.

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