People feel like they belong to their area, but less than 40% feel able to influence local Decisions

People feel their local area is a place where individuals from different backgrounds get on well together, new figures published show.

Headline figures from the citizenship survey show that 82 per cent of people see their community as cohesive, an increase from 80 per cent in 2005.

Also:

* 76 per cent of people feel that they strongly belong to their neighbourhood with. 81 per cent of people satisfied with their local area as a place to live
* Older people were more likely to be satisfied with their local area than younger people (88 per cent of people aged 75 years and over)

The survey is less positive on people feeling their voices are being heard at a local level. Fewer than 40 per cent of respondents felt able to influence decisions in their local area.

Cohesion Minister Sadiq Khan said: "Britain has a proud history of individuals from different backgrounds living side by side with each other and as this survey shows there remains more uniting us than dividing us.

"We must not take this for granted though. We need to ensure that Britain continues to be a place where people are proud to live and everyone can succeed. That means building on what we have already done to deliver equal opportunities and racial equality.

"Too few people feel they can influence decisions either at a local or national level. This is something we must address and why we are giving people more power to have a greater say in the way that local decisions that affect them are made."

These findings come from the Citizenship Survey: April - September 2008 (covering the first two quarters of data from the 2008-09 survey).

Every year almost 15,000 people are asked for their views on issues around community cohesion, discrimination, values, civic engagement and interaction. The biggest survey of its kind in the UK, the survey is one of the key tools used by Government to measure the effect of its policies.

See the full survey.