Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) publishes OpinionPanel report on Attitudes to Science among 14-16 year olds. It shows just how important science is to the young — 81% of respondents were amazed by the achievements of science, and 65% felt that it is important to know about science in their daily lives.
However females were not as positive about science as males. However, overall Science was the most popular subject in school (16% favouring it), followed by English. Maths was only most popular for 8%. And nearly half plan to study science after their GCSEs – this was the most popular subject choice.
For a quick summary see http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/science/science-and-society/attitudes-to-science-14-16 or see the full report at http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/science/docs/a/11-p112-attitudes-to-science-14-to-16.pdf