GIIA, in partnership with Ipsos MORI, has today released the largest survey of its kind looking at public attitudes towards infrastructure around the world.
The Global Infrastructure Index 2018 polled nearly 20,000 people across 29 countries to gauge levels of public satisfaction with their countries existing infrastructure and find out their priorities for future investment.
While 73% said that infrastructure was vital to their country’s future economic growth, 59% of people surveyed said their country wasn’t doing enough to meet future infrastructure requirements, re-enforcing the need for governments, regulators and investors to work together in the delivery of sustainable and innovative infrastructure for future generations.
View slides from the Global Infrastructure Index 2018
Other key takeaways from the research include:
- Of the 10 infrastructure sectors considered, Airports rated most positively (67%) followed by digital communication infrastructure (54%) and water supply and sewerage (52%).
- Flood defences (58%), local roads (53%) and rail infrastructure (track and stations) (49%) had the highest levels of dis-satisfaction
- 61% say not enough is being done to involve the public in infrastructure decisions
- Globally, more people are comfortable with foreign investment in new infrastructure if it means it gets built more quickly than not, by a margin of two and a half to one (49% to 19%)
Speaking on the release of the data, GIIA CEO Andy Rose said:
“The results show an overall decline in public satisfaction with infrastructure since 2017 reinforcing the message that governments need to prioritise creating the right environment for investment. Across the world, the public are relatively more positive about sectors where private investment features prominently although there remains room for improvement.”
Ben Marshall, Research Director at Ipsos MORI commented:
“Our annual survey underlines peoples’ strongly held conviction that governments need to do more on infrastructure. People are both pragmatic – saying they are comfortable with foreign investment – and principled – wanting to see a democratic deficit narrowed with people more involved in decision-making.”
GIIA’s Director of Corporate Affairs Jon Phillips blogs about the results