Most of us intuitively know that the strength and quality of the relationships we have as individuals and communities – our social capital – matters.
Two types of social capital are particularly important:
This new research, Revealing Social Capital, was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and conducted in partnership with the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), Neighbourly Labs, Stripe Partners, Opportunity Insights and Meta, and is the most detailed study of social connection in UK history.
The research draws on data from over six billion UK Facebook friendships to see how connected people are across income levels across the country. The study revealed that friendships across socioeconomic divides (“economic connectedness”) have a strong relationship with future earnings and social mobility alongside wellbeing and trust.
The work allows researchers to not only map but also interrogate and understand, social capital in a more comprehensive way than ever before in the UK.
A key challenge of our time is the so-called ‘Great Division’ – the cleaving apart, within and between our communities and countries, that has taken place over the past half-century, resulting in the depletion of social capital.
This has led to rising disconnection and mistrust among citizens and communities. And it has had increasingly disruptive consequences, locally, nationally, and internationally- contributing to sub-par growth, stalled social mobility, an epidemic in loneliness and crumbling communities.
Our Revealing Social Capital project has comprehensively mapped how economic connectedness and social mobility are linked in the UK.
Use the interactive maps below to explore how different types of social connection in your area relate to community-level social capital and economic opportunity in places up and down the UK.
Read the Revealing Social Capital research summary on the Behavioural Insights Team website.
Learn what we’re doing to build social capital in communities through our Connected Places intervention.
Partner with us to be part of a cohort of pilot places at the cutting edge of developing practical and scalable approaches to building social capital.
Help fund a cohort of pilot places exploring how to best map and replenish social capital to improve health and social mobility outcomes for residents. Contact our strategic partnerships team to find out more.
This research was carried out by an international consortium including BIT (Behavioural Insights Team), together with Meta, Stripe Partners, the RSA, Neighbourly Lab, and researchers from Stanford and Opportunity Insights, and is funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
