Key points
- The proportion of respondents who agreed with the statement “I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country” decreased significantly between 2017, the first year of the time series, and 2025 (from 60% to 51%). The 2025 figure was not significantly different to the corresponding figure for 2024 (55%), but was a significant decrease from the time series peak in 2022 (66%).
- The proportion of respondents who agreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country has increased significantly between 2017 (25%), the first year in the time series, and 2025 (34%). There has, however, been a significant decrease between 2024 (43%) and 2025.
- In 2025, almost two thirds (64%) of respondents agreed that people’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media. This figure was not significantly different to the corresponding figure for 2024 (63%), the first year the question was asked.
- In 2025, one third (33%) of respondents agreed that they would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees. This was a significant decrease from the 2023 figure (44%), the first year in the time series. There was no significant difference between the 2025 figure and the figure for 2024 (36%).
- In 2025, just over one quarter (26%) of respondents agreed that refugees positively contribute to our society.
Background and introduction
This publication uses data from the Young Life and times (YLT) survey to examine the attitudes of 16-year-olds to asylum seekers and refugees. The YLT survey is an annual survey of young people, aged 16, living in Northern Ireland. Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the following five statements:
- I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country (asked since 2017)
- Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country (asked since 2017)
- People’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media (asked since 2024)
- I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees (asked since 2023)
- Refugees positively contribute to our society (asked for the first time in 2025)
The responses to these five questions are the focus of this publication.
Comparisons over time are made for the full sample where data is available.
Supplementary data tables accompanying this publication, with breakdowns by sub-population groups, are available on the Executive Office website.
Technical overview
Changes over time have been tested for statistical significance. These have been highlighted in the commentary.
Further information on statistical uncertainty (confidence intervals and significance differences) have been provided in the Technical notes, with full detail provided in the supplementary data tables.
The Technical notes also include further information on the YLT survey, questions asked, definitions and analysis provided.
Note: Throughout the publication, response options ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘Agree’ were merged into an ‘Agree’ category. Response options ‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Disagree’ were merged into a ‘Disagree’ category.
Responses to the statement: “I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”
Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”. The proportion who agreed decreased significantly between 2017, the first year of the time series, and 2025 (from 60% to 51%). The 2025 figure was not significantly different to the corresponding figure for 2024 (55%), but was a significant decrease from the time series peak in 2022 (66%).
Figure 1: Percentage of all respondents who agreed that “it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”, 2017 to 2025
Note: Due to exceptional circumstances the survey was not conducted in 2020.
Over the years, the survey moved from paper-based to online methodology. This was trialled in 2019, when 46% of respondents completed the online version. From 2021, the survey has been predominantly online based. For more information please see Technical notes.
Figure 2 shows that in 2025, just over one half (51%) of all respondents agreed that “it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”. Just over one fifth (22%) neither agreed nor disagreed, 19% disagreed and 9% said they didn’t know.
Figure 2: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that “it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”, 2025
Responses to the statement: “Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country”
Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed that “Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country”. The proportion of all respondents who agreed has increased significantly between 2017 (25%), the first year in the time series, and 2025 (34%). There has, however, been a significant decrease between 2024 (43%) and 2025.
Figure 3: Percentage of all respondents who agreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country, 2017 to 2025
Note: Due to exceptional circumstances the survey was not conducted in 2020.
Over the years, the survey moved from paper-based to online methodology. This was trialled in 2019, when 46% of respondents completed the online version. From 2021, the survey has been predominantly online based. For more information please see Technical notes.
Figure 4 shows that in 2025, just over one third (34%) of all respondents agreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country. Almost three in ten (29%) neither agreed nor disagreed, nearly a quarter (24%) disagreed and 13% said they didn’t know.
Figure 4: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country, 2025
Responses to the statement: “People’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media”
Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed that “people’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media”. Figure 5 shows that in 2025 almost two thirds (64%) of respondents agreed with this statement. This figure was not significantly different to the corresponding figure for 2024 (63%).
Figure 5: Percentage of all respondents who agreed that people’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media, 2024 and 2025
Figure 6 shows that in 2025, almost two thirds (64%) of all respondents agreed with the statement, 15% neither agreed nor disagreed, 9% disagreed and 11% said they didn’t know.
Figure 6: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that people’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media, 2025
Responses to the statement: “I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees”
Respondents were then asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees”. In 2025, one third (33%) of respondents agreed with this statement - a significant decrease from the 2023 figure (44%), the first year in the time series. There was no significant difference between the 2025 figure and the figure for 2024 (36%).
Figure 7: Percentage of all respondents who agreed that they would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees, 2023 to 2025
Figure 8 shows that in 2025, one third (33%) of all respondents agreed with the statement, 31% neither agreed nor disagreed, almost one quarter (24%) disagreed and 12% said they didn’t know.
Figure 8: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that they would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees, 2025
Responses to the statement: “Refugees positively contribute to our society”
Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “Refugees positively contribute to our society”. In 2025, just over one quarter (26%) agreed with this statement, one third (33%) neither agreed nor disagreed, 26% disagreed and 16% said they didn’t know.
Figure 9: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that refugees positively contribute to our society, 2025
Technical notes
Methodology
Young Life and Times (YLT) is an annual survey run by Access Research Knowledge (ARK). ARK 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 sample of young people, aged 16, living in Northern Ireland.
In the questionnaire, refugees were defined as “people who have been given permission to stay in the UK because they have been persecuted in their home country”.
An asylum seeker was defined as “someone seeking refugee status who has not yet received a decision from the Immigration Authorities on whether their application was successful or not”.
After being provided with these definitions, respondents were asked: “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about refugees and asylum seekers generally?”
- I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country (asked since 2017)
- Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country (asked since 2017)
- People’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media (asked since 2024)
- I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees (asked since 2023)
- Refugees positively contribute to our society (asked for the first time in 2025)
The response options for all five questions were:
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- I don’t know
This publication presents findings for the overall sample. Breakdowns by gender, religion, disability and ethnic group are included in the supplementary data tables accompanying this publication.
Move to online survey
Until 2018, YLT survey was primarily a postal survey. The viability of conducting the survey online was tested in 2019. This approach proved successful, with 46% of respondents completing the online version. A decision was therefore taken to move, primarily, to online completion from the 2021 edition onwards. Postal or phone completion continue to be offered as an alternative, but in 2025 all questionnaires were completed online.
Sample
The 2025 survey sample was taken from the Child Benefit Register, which contains information on all children for whom Child Benefit is claimed. Since April 2013, Child Benefit payments have been means tested. However, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), who administer the Child Benefit payments across the UK, still hold the names and addresses of those 16-year olds who were affected by the Child Benefit Payment changes and also those whose parents have opted out of receiving Child Benefit. As such, the Child Benefit Register is the most suitable sample frame for the YLT survey.
The 2025 survey sample included the names and addresses of all 16-year olds from the Child Benefit Register, who were living in Northern Ireland and celebrated their 16th birthday in January, February and March 2025.
Potential participants received a letter inviting them to take part in the survey. Each letter contained a unique identifier code required to access the online survey. In the last week of April 2025, a reminder letter was sent to those who had not completed or opted out of the survey.
The HMRC dataset yielded 6,145 eligible names (with correct and complete addresses). These names were randomly split into two separate samples, with respondents invited to complete either survey Version 1 or Version 2.
Following the issuing of letters, names were removed (due to letters being returned as undelivered, or young people or their parents/carers opting out). This left an overall base sample, across both versions of the survey, of 6,012 16-year olds.
A total of 2,129 valid responses were received, representing an overall response rate of 35%.
The response rate varied a little between Version 1 (35% - the refugee and asylum questions were included in this version) and Version 2 (36%).
2025 YLT data collection period
Data for the 2025 YLT survey was collected between 16 April 2025 and 16 May 2025.
The 2020 YLT survey
YLT is an annual survey, but due to exceptional circumstances, it was not conducted in 2020.
Variable coding
Response options ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘Agree’ were merged into an ‘Agree’ category. Response options ‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Disagree’ were merged into a ‘Disagree’ category.
Statistics
When interpreting the findings in this publication, please note the following:
Rounding
Percentages within this publication have been rounded to the nearest integer and may therefore not sum to 100%.
Confidence intervals and statistical significance
The supplementary data tables include detail on the 95% confidence intervals for each estimate. A confidence interval gives an indication of the degree of uncertainty of an estimate and helps to explain how precise it is. The wider a confidence interval is, the less precise the associated estimate is.
Statistically significant differences over time have been highlighted in the report, with full detail, including differences between demographic groups, presented in worksheets 6a to 6e in the supplementary data tables. If two estimates are significantly different from each other, it means that the difference between them is unlikely to have occurred by chance. All tests were conducted at .05 significance level. This means that if a difference between two estimates is reported as significant, there is less than (<) 5% probability that the result was due to chance. The base numbers and percentage estimates have an effect on statistical significance. Therefore, on occasion, a difference between two estimates may be statistically significant while the same difference in percentage points between two other estimates may not be statistically significant. The reason for this is that the larger the base numbers or the closer the percentages are to 0 or 100, the smaller the standard errors. This leads to increased precision of the estimates which increases the likelihood that the difference is significant.
More information on statistical uncertainty can be found on the ONS website.
Publication threshold
It is the nature of sampling variability that the smaller the group whose size is being estimated, the less precise (proportionately) that estimate is. Estimates for groups where the sample base is less than 50 have been omitted from the report, as they are likely to be unreliable.
Disclosure control
Statistical disclosure control has been applied to instances of small cell counts (less than five). Data are not presented for confidentiality purposes. This is denoted by ‘[c]’ in the supplementary data tables.
Official statistics
These official statistics are produced in compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Our Statistical policies and statements provide further details of how we apply the principles and practices of the Code in the production and publication of our official statistics.
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Reader information
| Date of publication | 18 December 2025 |
| Coverage | Northern Ireland |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Reporting period | Data are from 2017 - 2025 |
| Statistical quality | Information detailed in this report has been quality assured prior to release. |
| Target audience | The Executive Office (TEO), other government departments, public bodies, community and voluntary sector organisations, educational professionals, academics, media and the public. |
| Web page | The Executive Office |
| Copyright | This publication is Crown copyright and may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium. Acknowledgement should be given for any material used, and the title of the publication specified. |
| Feedback | Comments on this publication are welcome. Please fill in our user survey or contact analyticalunit@executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk |
| Acknowledgement | Thanks are offered to all the individuals who took part in the surveys contributing to the findings presented in this report. Without their help this report would not have been possible. |
Contact Details
Status: Official Statistics
Published by: Analytical Unit, The Executive Office (TEO)
Contact: TEO Analytical Unit
Publication date: 18 December 2025
Theme: Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Coverage: Northern Ireland
Frequency: Annual
Media enquiries should be directed to The Executive Office press office: press.office@executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk
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