New Delhi: Language and traditions are considered to be central to national identity in 23 countries across North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and Australia, a survey published by Pew Research Center Thursday found.
Pew, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, in its latest report found that in 21 of 23 countries surveyed, a median of 91 percent of respondents believe that being able to speak a country’s most common language is “important” to national identity. The survey also found that a median of 81 percent of respondents in 21 countries believe that sharing customs and traditions of a country is important to national identity.
Pew surveyed 24,674 adults across 22 countries between 20 February, 2023 and 22 May, 2023, and 3,576 adults in the US between 20 March and 26 March, 2023. Countries where the survey was conducted included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the US.
India was not among countries surveyed.
The four components of national identity Pew looked into for the survey were — being born in a country, speaking the common language, sharing customs and traditions and being a member of the country’s main religion. Pew built a “National identity index” based on the responses received to these four components.
The National Identity Index consists of responses in each dimension scored from one to four, with four being considered as very important by the respondent. Pew found that respondents in Indonesia (3.72), Kenya (3.55), Nigeria (3.39), South Africa (3.39) and Mexico (3.36) considered the greatest number of dimensions important for belonging to a country.
Most Indonesian respondents, for example, said that being born in a country, speaking the same language, sharing in common customs and traditions and belonging to the country’s main religion (Islam) were important for being a “true national”.
In comparison respondents from Sweden (2.37), Australia (2.54), Canada (2.60), Germany (2.61) and the UK (2.64) are at the other end of the spectrum of the index.
Respondents in Sweden, for example, are least likely to believe that being born in the country or sharing the country’s main religion as important aspects of the Swedish identity, Pew found.
However, questions regarding a common language and a common religion were only asked in 21 out of the 23 countries surveyed. In Nigeria and South Africa, respondents were not asked about national language, while in Japan and South Korea, respondents were not asked about the importance of a common religion in national identity.
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Language and common customs and traditions
Ninety-one percent respondents across 21 countries said language and speaking a common language is important to national identity. This opinion is strongest in Hungary, the Netherlands and Indonesia, where 96 percent of respondents said speaking a common language is important.
This is followed by France (95 percent), Poland (94 percent), Germany (92 percent), Italy (92 percent), Sweden (92 percent) and Spain (90 percent).
In the UK, 88 percent, and in Greece, 86 percent, of respondents believed in the importance of language to national identity. These were the only two European countries surveyed where the population of those who laid emphasis on language was below 90 percent.
In Asia, nine-in-ten Indonesians and South Koreans held the same opinion— the highest for any country surveyed in Asia. The US and Israel had the least number of respondents holding the importance of language to national identity, with only 78 percent of Americans and 80 percent of Israelis emphasising on this dimension of the national identity index.
Among 12 countries further surveyed on ideological basis, it was found conservatives were more likely to connect national language to national identity. This was found starkly among Americans and Greeks, where the difference in opinion on this dimension between the ideological right and left was found to be 32 percentage points and 21 percentage points, respectively.
When it came to believing that sharing in their country’s customs and traditions was important for national identity, the number was found to be the highest in Indonesia (95 percent), Mexico (91 percent), Hungary (91 percent) and Poland (91 percent).
Israelis (58 percent), along with Swedes (61 percent), Germans (63 percent) and Brazilians (67 percent) were found to be among the population groups least likely to believe in shared customs and traditions as a part of their national identity.
Birthplace and religion
Countries where migrant populations are lower are more likely to believe that place of birth is important to national identity, found Pew. In Indonesia and Mexico, countries with less than 1 percent of their total population consisting of migrants, nine-in-ten respondents said they strongly believed that birthplace was an important part of their national identity, said the report.
Whereas in countries like Canada, where migrants make up almost 20 percent of the total population, this dimension is less important. In Canada, only 33 percent of respondents believed in the importance of birthplace as part of an individual’s national identity. The number was even more stark in Sweden, where only 19 percent of the respondents voiced belief in this sentiment.
This division is further seen along ideological lines among 12 countries surveyed by Pew. In the US nearly two-thirds of ideologically right respondents believed that being born in America was important to being truly American. Less than three-in-ten liberals believed the same.
Among European populations, most Polish (84 percent, highest in Europe) believed in the place of birth as being important to national identity.
Divisions in the importance of religion to national identity were seen along income lines between the 23 countries surveyed. A majority of populations in 12 countries – mostly high-income nations – do not believe that being a member of the main religion is important to national identity. Of the populations in the remaining nine countries – primarily middle-income nations – the opposite was true.
In Brazil, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa at least seven-in-ten respondents prioritised religion as important to national identity, the highest among countries surveyed. Whereas, about three-quarters of the respondents in Sweden, Germany, France, Australia, the Netherlands and Spain do not prioritise religion as a component of national identity.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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