This article describes how contemporary publics think about the nation along Kohn's classic distinction between ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ nationalism. The article makes three contributes to the existing literature. Firstly, it introduces a new statistical tool, multi‐classification analysis, to establish and analyse the two‐dimensional structure found in this and previous studies. Secondly, it derives at an alternative interpretation, with a first dimension distinguishing the level of mobilization of nationalist attitudes and a second dimension distinguishing the relative emphasis given to civic and ethnic elements. Thirdly, it demonstrates how this set‐up can be used to describe differences within countries, across countries and across time using all three rounds of International Social Survey Programme data on national identity. The descriptions demonstrate a move towards mobilized ethnic nationalism in Eastern Europe, while a stable non‐mobilized civic nationalism prevails in many West European countries, despite the rise of new right‐wing parties.