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Health Professionals Continue to be Considered Most Ethical and Honest

  • January 08 2004
  • Finding No. 3701
  • Topic: Special Poll
  • Country: Australia

Health professionals continue to top the list of professions Australians describe as having high levels of ethics and honesty.

 

The three professions most often mentioned by Australians as having high or very high standards of ethics and honesty were all health related, with Nursing (94%, up 4%) topping the poll for the tenth consecutive year, the latest Morgan Poll finds. The nursing profession has ranked highest every year since being included on the survey in 1994.

 

Pharmacists (87%, down 2%) and Medical Doctors (80%, unchanged) retained second and third place on the list of most respected professions, with School Teachers (79%, unchanged) again ranking fourth.

 

Judges, both State Supreme Court (72%, up 6%) and High Court (71%, up 6%) improved in position, ranking fifth and sixth respectively. Dentists (71%, up 4%), Engineers (69%, up 2%), Police (64%, down 1%) and University Lecturers (64%, down 2%) made up the top ten professions for perceived high levels of ethics and honesty.

 

As well as Judges, Public Opinion Pollsters (38%, up 9%), Bank Managers (35%, up 6%) and Accountants (50%, up 5%) showed the largest increases.

 

Car Salesmen (5%, up 2%) were once again the lowest ranked profession for honesty and ethics, as they have been since the survey began in 1976. Joining them at the foot of the table were Estate Agents (11%, up 3%), Newspaper Journalists (12%, up 3%), Advertising People (13%, up 3%) and Insurance Brokers (15%, up 5%).

 

These are the main findings of an Australia-wide survey of professional ethics and honesty conducted on November 28-29, 2003 for which 626 people aged 14 and over were interviewed by telephone.

 

For further information:

Gary Morgan:   Office: (03) 9224 5213   Mobile: 0411 129 094   Home: (03) 9419 3242

Michele Levine: Office: (03) 9224 5215 Mobile: 0411 129 093

 

"Very high" or "High" ratings for Ethics and Honesty:

All Australians

Occupation

 76 79 81 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 Diff.
% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %  
Nurses
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 86 86 87 86 88 89 88 90 90 94 +4
Pharmacists
 * * * * * * * * 76 76 72 76 79 78 78 79 80 80 80 86 83 83 89 87 -2
Doctors
 62 62 63 64 64 64 63 65 67 62 70 69 69 65 66 69 72 66 69 74 71 75 80 80 -
School Teachers
 56 54 55 55 55 54 57 56 55 57 61 59 62 61 65 69 68 64 71 71 70 74 79 79 -
State Supreme Court Judges
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 61 61 64 66 72 +6
High Court Judges
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 61 60 63 65 71 +6
Dentists
 62 61 62 61 62 65 63 65 68 65 62 64 66 62 60 65 65 60 61 65 64 65 67 71 +4
Engineers
 * 53 56 53 53 53 56 56 56 56 55 57 58 56 57 59 56 54 57 57 59 64 67 69 +2
Police
 52 48 56 53 53 53 56 56 53 53 54 54 53 54 56 59 55 55 60 62 62 58 65 64 -1
University Lecturers
 47 51 51 52 51 51 51 51 53 52 53 56 55 53 54 52 50 52 57 56 54 64 66 64 -2
Accountants
 * * 51 47 48 47 50 50 47 46 47 46 47 46 42 45 46 43 43 49 45 51 45 50 +5
Ministers of Religion
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 59 55 56 58 56 54 48 48 -
Public Opinion Pollsters
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 34 33 29 30 35 35 27 29 38 +9
Bank Managers
 66 66 61 62 61 58 60 58 54 50 49 40 44 41 37 39 37 32 36 33 26 30 29 35 +6
Lawyers
 43 41 38 41 44 41 39 41 41 41 37 38 34 32 30 32 29 29 26 34 29 32 30 31 +1
Talk-back Radio Announcers
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 18 14 17 17 21 +4
Business Executives
 22 22 22 18 22 19 23 24 21 20 19 15 17 16 17 17 17 16 18 22 17 19 17 19 +2
Stock Brokers
 * * * * * * 19 20 18 18 15 14 15 15 15 13 16 15 15 19 16 18 14 17 +3
State MPs
 21 20 16 20 17 14 17 12 14 15 11 10 10 11 10 12 12 9 7 13 12 14 17 17 -
Federal MPs
 19 16 15 19 19 13 16 13 14 15 13 10 10 11 10 9 13 9 7 13 11 16 16 17 +1
Directors of Public Companies
 * * * * * * * * * * * * 20 18 20 20 17 18 17 20 18 17 16 17 +1
TV Reporters
 * * * * * * * * * 16 17 15 14 15 16 13 12 11 12 14 12 18 18 17 -1
Union Leaders
 9 8 8 8 6 6 5 7 7 9 8 7 8 9 9 10 9 12 13 11 12 14 11 15 +4
Insurance Brokers
 * * * * * * 13 15 13 13 12 10 12 10 11 10 9 12 11 14 11 14 10 15 +5
Advertising People
 9 11 9 9 9 8 11 11 8 9 7 8 9 9 8 10 7 8 7 9 10 8 10 13 +3
Newspaper Journalists
 12 14 13 11 11 11 12 11 11 9 10 8 7 8 8 8 7 7 9 9 7 13 9 12 +3
Estate Agents
 * * * 11 9 10 10 11 11 11 11 9 9 10 9 11 10 10 8 11 10 8 8 11 +3
Car Salesmen
 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 5 +2
* Not included in poll

 

The Morgan Poll is conducted by the 
ONLY Australian or New Zealand member of the Gallup International Association.
No other public opinion poll taken in Australia or New Zealand 
has this qualification. 


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