{"id":822955,"date":"2026-03-13T11:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/822955\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:59:15","slug":"most-britons-now-believe-world-war-3-is-likely-in-the-next-few-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/822955\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Britons now believe World War 3 is likely in the next few years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And most Britons also lack confidence in the armed forces\u2019 ability to defend the country<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"fe2do\">Key takeaways<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-block-key=\"48e3b\">53% of Britons think World War 3 is likely within 5-10 years<\/li>\n<li data-block-key=\"9mkq6\">This is a 12pt increase since April 2025<\/li>\n<li data-block-key=\"2dldh\">Only 36% are confident in the armed forces&#8217; ability to defend the country<\/li>\n<li data-block-key=\"gp89\">Reform UK voters are much less likely to be confident than other voters<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-block-key=\"beibi\">Richard Shirreff, formerly deputy supreme allied commander of NATO in Europe, <a href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/92967\/are-we-heading-towards-world-war-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has warned<\/a> that future historians will look back on the US-Israel conflict with Iran as \u201cthe final catalyst for a third world war\u201d.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"baf8e\">Now a new YouGov survey finds that 53% of Britons think it is likely that there will be another world war within the next 5-10 years, including 16% who consider it \u201cvery likely\u201d.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"3f1kg\">This represents <a href=\"https:\/\/yougov.com\/en-gb\/articles\/52113-many-europeans-and-americans-think-world-war-3-is-imminent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a 12pt increase since April last year<\/a>, including an 8pt increase in \u201cvery likely\u201d.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"bbfn0\">Only one in three (32%) consider World War 3 unlikely, with just 7% deeming the odds \u201cvery unlikely\u201d.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"f3fho\">Expectations are relatively similar across the political spectrum, ranging from 47% of Lib Dem voters to 59% of Reform UK voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And most Britons also lack confidence in the armed forces\u2019 ability to defend the country Key takeaways 53%&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-822955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116221756384665627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}