The number of British people who want their country to leave the European Union has dropped sharply over the last two years, a report said on Tuesday, according to dpa. A survey by the US-based Pew Research Center found 46 per cent of people wanted Britain to leave the EU in 2013, when Prime Minister David Cameron made his vow to hold an in-out referendum by the end of 2017 if he won a second term in office. In a new survey following Cameron's election victory last month, only 36 per cent of some 1,000 respondents said they favoured a so-called Brexit, a British exit from the EU, despite the UK Independence Party running a strong anti-EU campaign. About 55 per cent of respondents said they wanted Britain to remain part of the EU, compared with 46 per cent in 2013, Pew said. The results could encourage Cameron, who lobbied several European leaders last week as he launched his promised renegotiation of the terms of Britain's EU membership ahead of the referendum. "A strong majority of young people want to stay in the EU, while roughly half of older British agree," the report said. University-educated British people and those on the political "left" were more likely to favour staying in the EU, it said. Across Britain and five other EU nations - Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland - 61 per cent of some 6,000 respondents held a "favourable view" of the EU, up from 52 per cent in 2013. The six nations combined account for some 70 per cent of the EU's 506 million people and 74 per cent of its economic output. Most respondents said the rise of UKIP in Britain and similar parties in the other nations was a "good thing for the country," with the highest levels of support for the advent of the new parties at 66 per cent in Britain and 70 per cent in Spain. "In the wake of the euro currency crisis, public support for the EU and the belief that European economic integration was good for one's country had declined precipitously across Europe, reaching a low point in 2013," the report said. "But in 2015, favourable views of the EU and faith in the efficacy of creating a single market are generally rebounding in major EU member states," it said. "And this revival in pro-EU sentiment is closely related to the public's economic mood."
