About the 2022 Survey

For the fifth year, 3M is sharing unique insights from our original research project, the State of Science Index. The State of Science Index is a third-party, independent research study commissioned by 3M 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.

Fielded September 27, 2021 – December 17, 2021, the 2022 wave of data moves beyond COVID-19 to explore the future of science and capture sentiment related to 3M’s core brand priorities of STEM equity, health equity, upskilling and trade skills, sustainability, and future technology. It also gives us five years' worth of trends about how the perception of science has changed as the world continues to tackle challenges that impact our lives—and rely on scientific solutions. For the first time, insights are equally divided between the pre-pandemic and pandemic eras with data from 3 surveys conducted before the pandemic, and 3 surveys conducted since the pandemic.

Why are we conducting 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.

1000 respondents
in each of the 17 countries.
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. 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 original, independent and nationally representative (based on census demographics) research in 2022.

US, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, UAE, India, China, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Australia.

The 2022 State of Science Index survey was conducted among a representative sample of 1,000 general population adults, 18 years and older, across the following 17 countries: US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, China, India, UAE, and Australia. At the 95% confidence level, the margin of error is +/- 0.75 percentage points at the 17-country level and +/- 3.1 percentage points for each individual country.

To compare results year over year, a 10-country tracking average was used which has a margin of error of +/- 0.98 percentage points.

The State of Science Index: 2022 Global Report

Learn more about the themes of this year’s survey in our 2022 Global Report.

Download report (PDF, 4.28 MB)