Less Than 50% Of British 18-24 Year Olds Know First Verse Of National Anthem
June 2014 - Public Consultation
According to a recent survey over two fifths (43%) of 18-24 year olds in Britain do not know the first verse of the national anthem, with less than half (44%) in the know and 13% unsure.
Heading into this year’s World Cup Roy Hodgson insisted all of the England players must sing the national anthem – 64% of respondents supported this statement.
Overall, almost seven in 10 (68%) British respondents said they could sing the first verse off by heart, with just over one quarter (26%) saying they couldn’t.
The number of people who could recite the first verse of the national anthem off by heart increased with age:
| Age | Can sing the first verse | Can't sing the first verse |
| 18-24 | 44% | 43% |
| 25-39 | 50% | 41% |
| 40-59 | 73% | 23% |
| 60+ | 89% | 10% |
Politically, participants who voted for UKIP were most likely to know the first verse (85%), followed closely by Conservative Party supporters (82%), with Labour and Liberal Democrat voters a fairly distant joint third (66%).
In total, more than seven in 10 (72%) said they had sung the national anthem at some point in their life, with 15% admitting they had never sung it.
The number of people who had never sung the national anthem decreased with age, with just 4% of people aged 60+ conceding they had never sung it:
| Age | Have sung it | Never sung it |
| 18-24 | 52% | 28% |
| 25-39 | 60% | 23% |
| 40-59 | 74% | 14% |
| 60+ | 86% | 4% |
This research was done by YouGov.
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