Promoting social mobility and equality of opportunity remains an important challenge for OECD countries. It is therefore critical to understand citizens’ perceptions on social risks and on the role of institutions and market players in providing everyone with equal chances to succeed in life.

To explore people’s perceptions of equal opportunity, the OECD, with the support of Amundi, included a module on “opportunities” in the 2022 wave of the OECD Risks that Matter survey. This module targeted the general population across 27 OECD countries with a sample of approximately 1,000 respondents per country, stratified by sex, age group, education level, income level, and employment status.

In particular, the Opportunities module collected evidence on the following thematic areas identified as lacking comparable information:

  • the relative importance of different aspects of inequality;
  • people’s views on the role of effort and factors beyond people’s control in shaping inequality of opportunity; and
  • people’s views of the role different actors play in reducing inequality and of the type of policies and actions to prioritise.

Data collection on these topics greatly contributes to fill existing evidence gaps on issues that are at the core of the public debate in many OECD countries.

Before discovering the main findings of the Opportunities module

Take this poll to compare your perceptions of equal opportunity to the OECD average.

The data collected by the OECD with the support of Amundi across 27 OECD countries reveal people’s widespread concerns about the current level of economic inequality and lack of opportunity in society. The biggest challenge lies ahead, as the vast majority of respondents called for more collective actions to reduce these inequalities and ensure equal opportunity, and also expressed their views on how we could reduce these issues, asking for an active participation of the private sector.

 

Jean-Jacques Barbéris, Member of the Executive Committee & Head of Institutional Clients Coverage and ESG

Jean-Jacques Barbéris, Member of the Executive Committee & Head of Institutional Clients Coverage and ESG

The main findings from the data are showcased in a series of three Policy Insights briefs:

 

   

 

Hard work,
privilege or luck?

Exploring people's views
of what matters most to get ahead in life

      

Working
hand in hand?

Exploring people's views
of the role of different actors in fighting inequality 

      

Enhancing opportunities
by design

Exploring people’s views
of what should be done to fight inequality