Public Opinion
There have been a large number of polls conducted on support levels for Scottish independence. Professor John Curtice stated in January 2012 that polling shows support for independence at between 32% and 38% of the Scottish population. This has fallen somewhat since the SNP were first elected to become the Scottish Government in 2007. The research also shows, however, that the proportion of the population strongly opposed to independence has fallen significantly in recent years.
Polls show consistent strong support for a referendum, including amongst those who support the continuation of the union. Most opinion polls performed have a figure of in-principle support for a referendum around 70–75%.
Independence Opinion Polls
| Poll source | Date | For Independence |
Against Independence |
Leading by % | Undecided | Sample Size* |
Margin of Error (MoE) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ipsos Mori | October 2012 | 30% | 58% | 28 | 12 | 1,003 | |
|
Ipsos Mori |
June 2012 | 35% | 55% | 20 | 10 | 1,003 | |
|
Ipsos Mori |
January 2012 | 39% | 50% | 11 | 11 | 1,005 |
Read more about this topic: Scottish Independence
Famous quotes containing the words public opinion, public and/or opinion:
“Public opinion contains all kinds of falsity and truth, but it takes a great man to find the truth in it. The great man of the age is the one who can put into words the will of his age, tell his age what its will is, and accomplish it. What he does is the heart and the essence of his age, he actualizes his age. The man who lacks sense enough to despise public opinion expressed in gossip will never do anything great.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Clay answered the petition by declaring that while he looked on the institution of slavery as an evil, it was ‘nothing in comparison with the far greater evil which would inevitably flow from a sudden and indiscriminate emancipation.’”
—State of Indiana, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“If an opinion can eventually go to the determination of a practical belief, it, in so far, becomes itself a practical belief; and every proposition that is not pure metaphysical jargon and chatter must have some possible bearing upon practice.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)