How do I put a space character before option text in a HTML select element?

Isn't &#160 the entity for space?

<select>
<option>&#160;option 1</option>
<option>    option 2</option>
</select>

Works for me...

EDIT:

Just checked this out, there may be compatibility issues with this in older browsers, but all seems to work fine for me here. Just thought I should let you know as you may want to replace with  

Use \xA0 with String. This Works Perfect while binding C# Model Data to a Dropdown...

  SectionsList.ForEach(p => { p.Text = "\xA0\xA0Section: " + p.Text; });

I think you want   or  

So a fixed version of your example could be...

<select>
  <option>&nbsp;&nbsp;Sample</option>
</select>

or

<select>
  <option>&#160;&#160;Sample</option>
</select>

As Rob Cooper pointed out, there are some compatibility issues with older browsers (IE6 will display the actual letters "& nbsp;"

This is how I get around it in ASP.Net (I don't have VS open so I'm not sure what characters this actually gets translated to):

Server.HtmlDecode(" ")