Interest in London Olympics Highest in Australia, Lowest in Britain
Australians are also the most likely to say that results depend on the performance of athletes, and not government or sports authorities.
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(07/17/12) -
People in Australia are looking forward to the London Olympics with more enthusiasm than residents of three other countries, including the host nation, a new poll conducted by Vision Critical Opinions Australia in partnership with Nine Rewards and Angus Reid Public Opinion has found.
In the online survey of representative national samples in four countries, 79 per cent of Australians say they are “very interested” or “moderately interested” in the London Olympics.
The proportion of respondents in the United States (59%), Canada (55%) and Britain (48%) who are interested in the games is decidedly lower. In fact, only one-in-twenty Australians (5%) say they are “not interested at all” in the London Olympics, compared to 18 per cent of both Americans and Canadians and 29 per cent of Britons.
A third (32%) of all Australians interested in the Olympics are mostly looking forward to the swimming events. On average, Australians that are interested in the Olympics expect their national team to return home with 18 gold medals.
When it comes to medal expectations, three-in-five Australians (77%) say the athletes themselves are mostly responsible for the results of the country in the London Olympic Games—a slightly higher proportion than in the United States (66%), Britain (63%) and Canada (63%).
Britons are the most likely to assign responsibility for the results of their team in the Olympics to sports authorities (11%), while Canadians are more likely to say that the Government is accountable for results (7%).
Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)
CONTACT:
Peter Harris, Managing Director, Vision Critical AUS/NZ
+02 9256 2001
peter.harris@visioncritical.com
Full Methodology Details:
Vision Critical Australia and Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among:
- 1,505 Australian adults who are Nine Rewards panelists, from 6 July to July 8, 2012.
- 2,033 British adults who are Springboard UK panelists, from June 12 to June 13, 2012.
- 1,003 Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists, from July 4 to July 5, 2012.
- 1,005 American adults who are Springboard America panelists, from July 6 to July 8, 2012.
The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1% for Canada and the United States, +/-2.5% for Australia, and +/-2.2% for Great Britain. 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.
