Nurses, Doctors Are Most Respected Jobs in Canada, U.S. and Britain
Nurses and doctors continue to be well regarded by people in Canada, the United States and Britain, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
In the online survey of representative national samples, respondents were asked about the level of respect they hold for 25 different professions.
In Britain, 93 per cent of respondents have “a great deal of respect” or “a fair amount of respect” for nurses—a view shared by 96 per cent of Canadians and 92 per cent of Americans.
Doctors also fared well in the three countries (96% in Canada, and 90% in both Britain and the United States).
Farmers had a particularly high ranking in Canada (95%) and the U.S. (93%), while Canadians also gave good marks to scientists (92%) veterinarians (92%) and dentists (90%).
In Britain, six professions did not manage to garner the respect of at least half of respondents: building contractors (43%), business executives (28%), journalists (20%), politicians (15%), bankers (15%) and car salesmen (14%). In the United States, four professions ranked below 50 per cent: business executives (48%), lawyers (45%), car salesmen (30%) and politicians (20%). In Canada, only two professions received overly negative ratings: car salesmen (28%) and politicians (27%).
Britons are more likely to express respect for athletes (81%) than Canadians (73%) and Americans (60%), while Americans are more likely to respect priests and ministers (76%) than Canadians (66%) or Britons (54%).
Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)
Methodology – Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among:
– 1,002 American adults who are Springboard America panelists, from September 4 to September 5, 2012.
– 2,010 British adults who are Springboard UK panelists, from August 30 to August 31, 2012.
– 1,510 Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists, from August 30 to August 31, 2012.
The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/-2.2% for Great Britain, +/-2.5% for Canada, and +/-3.1% for the United States. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of each country.
