Background
Each year, the Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey takes a snapshot of the attitudes and beliefs of adults in Northern Ireland to a range of societal issues including housing, identity, sports and community relations. The issues covered within the survey differ each year depending on interest, however, a respect module is included annually.
The respect module includes a set of nine questions known as the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS). This measures perception of discrimination experienced by individuals in their daily lives. Responses to the nine questions are collated to report proportions who ‘feel respected’ and ‘do not feel respected’ – the Respect Index.
NILT has always been a face to face household survey, but in 2020, the survey transitioned to a push-to-web methodology, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and this approach was retained in 2021, 2022 and again in 2023. Comparisons of 2020 to 2023 data with previous years should therefore only be done with great caution.
How it looked in 2023
Overall
20% of NILT 2023 respondents felt respected.
Gender
The same proportion of male (20%) and female (20%) respondents reported they felt respected.
Religion
Figure 1. Percentage of respondents who felt respected in 2023, by religion
Figure 1 shows similar proportions of Protestant (22%), Catholic (20%) and ‘Other’ (18%) respondents felt respected. There were no statistically significant differences between these proportions. ‘Other’ includes those with no religion, all other religions, those who answered don’t know or gave no answer.
Age
Figure 2. Percentage of respondents who felt respected in
2023, by age
As shown in Figure 2, the highest proportion of respondents who felt respected was in the 65+ age group (35%) and this was significantly higher compared to all other age groups. The lowest proportion of those who felt respected was in the 18-24 age group (7%). The 50-64 (24%) age group had a significantly higher proportion of those who felt respected than the 18-24 (7%), 25-34 (10%) and 35-49 (15%) age groups.
Disability
Similar proportions of respondents with disabilities (17%) and those without (21%) reported feeling respected. This difference was not statistically significant.
Individual Respect items
Figure 3. Percentage of respondents who experienced disrespectful behaviours in 2023
Note. Numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Figure 3 shows the frequency with which respondents experienced each of the nine items that make up the Everyday Discrimination Scale. In addition to those who said they never experienced what is described by each individual item, ‘occasionally’ relates to percentages of respondents who experienced each behaviour less than once a year or a few times a year; and ‘Monthly or more often’ relates to percentages of respondents who experienced each behaviour a few times a month, at least once a week or almost every day.
People acting as if they are afraid of you (76%), people acting as if they think you are dishonest (72%) and being threatened or harassed (69%) were the items with the highest proportions of respondents saying that they had never experienced these behaviours. People acting as if they are better than you (22%), being treated with less courtesy than other people (16%) and being treated with less respect than other people (15%) were the items with the highest proportions of respondents saying that they had experienced these at least a few times a month.
Changes over time
Figure 4. Percentage of all respondents who felt respected
across time
Note. The survey methodology changed between 2019 and 2020, when the survey moved from a face-to-face to an online mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As shown in Figure 4, 28% of respondents felt respected in 2016.
This proportion increased to 37% in 2017 and remained relatively stable
until 2019 (36%). Then there was a steep decline between 2019 and 2020
in the proportion of respondents who felt respected, from 36% to 19%. It
is not possible to say with certainty the reasons why this has happened,
but it is likely that the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the shift from
an in-person to an online mode of the survey, played a role in this. The
proportion of respondents who felt respected did not change from 2020 to
2022 (19%). The proportion of adults who felt respected in 2023 (20%)
was significantly lower when compared to the baseline year of 2016
(28%).
Gender
Figure 5. Percentage of respondents who felt respected across
time, by gender
Note. The survey methodology changed between 2019 and 2020, when the survey moved from a face-to-face to an online mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Figure 5 shows the percentages of males and females who felt
respected each year, between 2016 and 2023. A significantly lower
proportion of females (20%) felt respected in 2023 compared to the
baseline year of 2016 (30%). There was a decrease in the proportion of
males who felt respected in 2023 (20%) compared to the baseline year of
2016 (25%), however this difference is not statistically
significant.
Religion
Figure 6. Percentage of respondents who felt respected across
time, by religion
Note. The survey methodology changed between 2019 and 2020, when the survey moved from a face-to-face to an online mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There was a significant decrease between 2016 and 2023 in the
proportion of both Catholics and Protestants who felt respected. As seen
in Figure 6, this was a decrease from 30% in 2016 to 20% in 2023 for
Catholics and a decrease from 30% in 2016 to 22% in 2023 for
Protestants. Respondents of the ‘Other’ group saw a decrease from 22% in
2016 to 18% in 2023, but this was not statistically significant.
Age
Figure 7. Percentage of respondents who felt respected across time, by age
Note. The survey methodology changed between 2019 and 2020, when the survey moved from a face-to-face to an online mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As shown in Figure 7, the 65+ age group had the highest proportion of those who felt respected each year (2023: 35%). For almost every year, the lowest proportion of those who felt respected was the 18-24 age group, (2023: 7%). The 35-49 (2016: 27%; 2023: 15%) and the 65+ (2016: 46%; 2023: 35%) age groups both saw a significant decrease between 2016 and 2023 in the proportion of adults who felt respected. There were no statistically significant differences in the 18-24 (2016: 14%; 2023: 7%), 25-34 (2016: 17%; 2023: 10%) or 50-64 (2016: 27%; 2023: 24%) age groups between 2016 and 2023.
Disability
Figure 8. Percentage of respondents who felt respected across
time, by disability
Note. The survey methodology changed between 2019 and 2020, when the survey moved from a face-to-face to an online mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Figure 8 shows the percentages of respondents with and without
disabilities who felt respected each year, between 2016 and 2023. A
significantly lower proportion of both respondents with disabilities
(17%) and those without (21%) said they felt respected in 2023 compared
to 2016 (33% and 27% respectively).
Technical notes
Sample
The NILT survey is an annual survey run by Access Research Knowledge (ARK), which is a social policy hub, established in 2000 by researchers at Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast. Every year, ARK administer the survey to a nationally representative sample of adults aged 18 years or over, living in Northern Ireland.
The selected sample for the 2023 survey was 8,000 Northern Ireland addresses selected from the Postcode Address File database of addresses. The sample was stratified proportionately by Local Government District. The person within the household with ‘next birthday’ was asked to complete the survey. Potential participants received a letter with their household’s unique URL survey link. As an alternative, participants could phone a freephone number to book a telephone interview. The survey was completed using a large-scale Computer Assisted Web Interviewing survey, and it was supplemented using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview. A total of 1,200 adults aged 18 years or over completed the survey.
Weighting
All analyses of the data are weighted in order to ensure representation of the general population of Northern Ireland, by increasing the relative importance of underrepresented groups and decreasing the importance of overrepresented groups. Weighting in NILT is based on gender, age and location (based on Northern Ireland Census data from 2021).
Variable coding
Respect Index
The following nine items comprise the Everyday Discrimination Scale: “In your day-to-day life, how often do any of the following things happen to you?”
- You are treated with less courtesy than other people are
- You are treated with less respect than other people are
- You receive poorer service than other people at restaurants or shops
- People act as if they think you are not smart
- People act as if they are afraid of you
- People act as if they think you are dishonest
- People act as if they’re better than you are
- You are called names or insulted
- You are threatened or harassed
Response options were: Almost every day, At least once a week, A few times a month, A few times a year, Less than once a year, Never, Prefer not to say.
For respondents to be categorised as ‘respected’, they had to select Never for all nine items. Respondents with missing values were excluded from the analysis.
For the analysis of the individual items, the responses were recoded as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. NILT 2023 response options for items on the Everyday Discrimination Scale
| NILT 2023 response options | Recoding for the current report |
|---|---|
| Almost every day | Monthly or more often |
| At least once a week | Monthly or more often |
| A few times a month | Monthly or more often |
| A few times a year | Occasionally |
| Less than once a year | Occasionally |
| Never | Never |
| Prefer not to say | Excluded from analysis |
Gender
In NILT 2023, respondents were asked: “Please complete the table below for yourself and each member of your household, including age, gender and relationship to you.”
The response options were: Male, Female, In another way, I don’t know, Prefer not to say.
The analyses by gender in this report include respondents who identified as Male or Female. The numbers in the remaining response categories were too small to enable production of meaningful statistics (even if combined) and they were therefore excluded from the analyses that focused on gender.
Religion
In NILT 2023, respondents were asked: “Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion? If yes, which?”
Table 2 below shows the response options and how they were recoded for the current report.
Table 2. NILT 2023 response options for the religion question
| NILT 2023 response options | Recoding for the current report |
|---|---|
| No religion | Other |
| Catholic | Catholic |
| Church of Ireland/Anglican/Episcopal | Protestant |
| Baptist | Protestant |
| Methodist | Protestant |
| Presbyterian | Protestant |
| Free Presbyterian | Protestant |
| Brethren | Protestant |
| United Reform Church (URC)/Congregational | Protestant |
| Pentecostal | Protestant |
| Church of Scotland | Protestant |
| Elim Pentecostal | Protestant |
| Reformed Presbyterian | Protestant |
| Non-subscribing Presbyterian | Protestant |
| Salvation Army | Protestant |
| Church of Nazarene | Protestant |
| Jehovah’s Witness | Other |
| Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) | Other |
| Other Protestant, Please say which___ | Protestant |
| Other Christian, Please say which___ | Other |
| Hindu | Other |
| Jewish | Other |
| Islam/Muslim | Other |
| Sikh | Other |
| Buddhist | Other |
| Other (please write in) | Other |
| I don’t know | Other |
| Prefer not to say | Other |
Age
In NILT 2023, respondents were asked: “Please complete the table below for yourself and each member of your household, including age, sex and relationship to you”. These ages were then recoded into the following age categories: 18-24 years, 25-34 years, 35-49 years, 50-64 years and 65+ years.
Please note that respondents who were not willing to provide their exact age were asked to indicate their age band. However, these respondents were not included in this analysis due to the age bands used by ARK differing to those in this report.
Disability
In NILT 2023, respondents were asked: “Do you have any physical or mental health conditions or illnesses lasting or expected to last for 12 months or more?”
The response options were: Yes, No, Prefer not to say.
Respondents who selected ‘Yes’ were subsequently asked: “Does your condition or illness/do any of your conditions or illnesses reduce your ability to carry out day-to-day activities?”
The response options were: Yes a lot, Yes a little, No not at all, Prefer not to say.
Respondents who selected ‘Yes a lot’ or ‘Yes a little’ were categorised as having disabilities. Those who selected ‘No not at all’ and those who answered ‘No’ to the first question, were categorised as not having disabilities. In 2023, no respondents selected ‘Prefer not to say’.
Statistics
When interpreting the findings in this report, please note the following:
- Percentages are rounded to the nearest integer.
- Due to missing values on the demographic variables, the total number of respondents varies across the demographic breakdowns. This number is reported in the accompanying data tables. Missing values were due to respondents refusing to answer the question or accidentally omitting it.
- Comparison of percentages should be done with caution when base numbers (the number of valid responses to a particular question) are small. For the purposes of this report, a base number is considered small if it is less than 100. To enable comparison, base numbers are included in the accompanying data tables.
- Significant difference refers to statistical significance between two groups. If two groups are significantly different from each other, it means that the difference between the two groups is unlikely to have occurred by chance. All tests were conducted at .05 significance level. This means that if a difference between two groups is reported as significant, there is less than (<) 5% chance that the result was due to chance.
- Tests of significant differences (Z tests) were conducted where appropriate. Each test compared two groups.
Data tables accompanying this publication are available on The
Executive Office Statistics and Research Website
The NILT datasets are available on the ARK website
Reader information
Contact
Caoimhe Stewart
Statistics and Research Branch
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