About the 2020 Survey

For the third year, 3M is sharing unique insights from our original research project, the State of Science Index. The State of Science Index is an independent survey that tracks and explores global attitudes toward science, taking the pulse on how people think and feel about the field and its impact on the world around us. This year, though, we are facing a very different world. As such, we’re releasing two waves of data at once: one from our typical 14-country global survey fielded a few months before the pandemic hit in August-October 2019 (called 2020 Pre-Pandemic Survey), and a second full data set from a pulse survey conducted during the pandemic in July-August 2020 (called 2020 Pandemic Pulse). This pulse survey helps us understand the immediate impact that the pandemic and other major economic and social justice milestones have had on global views on science and top scientific issues.

Why do we conduct this research?
Science matters to 3M. We want to create a better world through science, and we want to inspire others to join us in that effort. To do so, we need to understand what the world thinks of science—and the role it plays in society—because it could impact the future. 3M’s State of Science Index presents original, independent and nationally representative (based on census demographics) research conducted among the general population around the world.

Since 2018, it has been one of the largest, most global studies to explore attitudes about science and enables 3M to track and benchmark shifts in attitudes about science over time, using the inaugural year as a baseline. For the first time since conducting the State of Science Index, we have enough historical data to call out trends from questions we have tracked over time. Data from this research can be viewed as a global average, or individually by country.

Methodology

3M’s State of Science Index presents two waves of original, independent and nationally representative (based on census demographics) research in 2020.

Pre-Pandemic Wave: The 2020 Pre-Pandemic Survey was conducted in 14 countries among 1,000 general population adults (18+) in each of the following countries: Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, UK and the US. At the 95% confidence level, the margin of error is +/- 0.83 percentage points at the global, 14-country level and +/- 3.1 percentage points for each individual country.

Pandemic Pulse Wave: The 2020 Pandemic Pulse was conducted among 1,000 general population adults (18+) in 11 of the 14 countries from the 2020 Pre-Pandemic Survey. Countries excluded from this pulse include India, Mexico, and South Africa. At the 95% confidence level, the margin of error is +/- 0.94 points at the 11-country level and +/- 3.1 percentage points for each individual country.

To compare results year over year, a 9-country tracking average was used which has a margin of error of +/- 1.04 percentage points.