Widespread maths fears across the UK
Number Nation, a survey into public attitudes towards numbers, found that only around forty percent of UK adults scored highly for numerical competence, despite 60% assessing their own abilities as high. Maths competence was established using numeracy questions, combined with any maths-relevant GCSE and A-level qualifications.
The research however also suggests widespread worries around using maths in everyday life, with almost a third of women (32%) saying they are not confident handling everyday numbers, compared with fewer than one in five men. And women were fourteen percentage points more likely than their male counterparts to be in the low confidence, low competence group and fifteen percentage points less likely to be in the high confidence, high competence group.
Parenting and the gender confidence gap
The gender confidence gap was also a theme among parents, with mothers being less likely than fathers to feel confident supporting their children with homework (69% of mothers compared to 83% of fathers). This must be addressed, with recent research conducted by Mumsnet and National Numeracy suggesting that parents pass their maths anxiety down through generations.
Akshata Murphy, who founded The Richmond Project with her husband Rishi Sunak, told the Sunday Times, "There is this anxiety that women feel more so than men. I’m not saying men don’t feel it at all, but women tend to feel it more and that translates intergenerationally. If a young girl sees her mother feeling anxious then she subconsciously buys into that anxiety. So I think that’s how that cycle goes on and on."
Numerous academic studies show there is no gender component to maths ability, and despite lacking the confidence of boys in STEM subjects, girls often outperform their male counterparts in maths and science subjects at GCSE level. With the Number Nation report also pointing to number struggles as a barrier to social mobility, this further reinforces the need to narrow the UK’s gender confidence gap.
A high desire to build skills
Encouragingly, the desire to improve competence and confidence is high, with around two thirds of UK adults saying they would be interested in improving their number skills, believing it would boost confidence, reduce stress, and improve their ability to manage finances. And 90% of respondents recognise the overall importance of number skills, for individuals and society as a whole.
Parents, compared to those without children, were thirteen percentage points more likely to want to improve their skills with numbers – 78% if parents expressed an interest in doing so, and 35% of parents wanted stated helping their children as the reason.
Responding to the research, Sam Sims, Chief Executive of National Numeracy, said:
"This important report provides yet further compelling evidence for both the importance and value of improving UK numeracy levels. It closely correlates with the findings of National Numeracy and our partners from the past decade; namely that low number confidence and numeracy skills are holding millions of people back – with low number confidence experienced disproportionately by women and girls – and that the negative effects are intergenerational.
"This report should serve as yet another rallying call to urgently scale up to improve UK numeracy levels, with the benefits for individuals and society too great to ignore. Bringing about this change is precisely why National Numeracy, the National Numeracy Leadership Council and its Gender Taskforce exist. It is therefore great to have another ally in the Richmond Project taking up the challenge."
National Numeracy is working with pioneering partners to raise public awareness of the numeracy issue, and improve numeracy across the UK, through projects like the Schools & Families programme, and the Gender Taskforce. We would love to hear from any organisations that our mission resonates with.
