Who loves and hates America: A revealing map of global opinion toward the U.S.

[xchrom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/01/11/who-loves-and-hates-america-a-revealing-map-of-global-opinion-toward-the-u-s/



One of the most common answers I hear when I ask foreigners what they think about the U.S. is some variation of this: “You Americans are all so obsessed with how you’re perceived overseas.” In that spirit, even if it means reinforcing a stereotype, I’ve mapped some new data on global opinion of the United States, as part of a series of posts on Pew’s fascinating and just-out “global attitudes” study.

The map at the top of the post shows positive and negative opinions of the U.S. across the world. The poll works just like a presidential poll: Pew called people up and asked them if they had a favorable opinion of the U.S. or an unfavorable opinion (there was also a choice for no answer). Countries with a more favorable opinion are in blue (the darker the blue, the more favorable); red shows more unfavorable attitudes. A quick note about the data: most of it is from 2012, but I also pulled the 2011 numbers for Kenya, Ukraine, Indonesia and Lithuania; as well as the 2010 numbers for Argentina, Nigeria and South Korea; these countries were not included in the most recent survey.

My first impression is that nobody polarizes public opinion like Uncle Sam. Pew asked for respondents to give their impressions of several different countries (more on this in later posts), and the U.S. seemed to draw by far the strongest responses. It’s not really surprising that people have strong opinions about America, but it is a reminder of how closely we’re watched around the world and of the strong feelings that the American model and American foreign policy elicit.

[Pholus]

1. If we've lost Canada, we've lost the world... ;)

I mean, Russia likes us better? Really?

[HiPointDem]

2. it seems weird that russia likes us & china doesn;t.

[Pholus]

3. China wants to pass us as a world power, so I expect a bit of a rivalry.

But I can't see why Russia would be supportive after the last 20 years. Oh well, it's something to think about in odd moments over the next week!

[HiPointDem]

5. and russia doesn't? we're still in cold war, i think...

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. There's no opinion from Canada there

It's grey. Canada was last surveyed for this in 2009; 68% positive, 28% negative, so net +40%.

http://www.pewglobal.org/database/?indicator=1&country=39&response=Favorable

[smirkymonkey]

4. So it looks like Italy and Austria (and maybe the Ukraine) are our biggest European

fans. Interesting. South Korea? That surprises me.

[HiPointDem]

6. korea & japan = protection from china

[smirkymonkey]

11. Good point, for some reason I was under the impression that they

disliked us. Thanks!

[Buzz Clik]

7. Lots of countries with no data.

Doesn't give us much to work with.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Possibly more interesting - a survey for the BBC, asking opinions about several countries

http://www.globescan.com/images/images/pressreleases/bbc2012_country_ratings/2012_bbc_country%20rating%20final%20080512.pdf

which allows you to see that, for instance, Nigeria has pretty positive opinions about most countries.

The countries they asked the surveys in (both polls) are most of the populous ones that you can ask surveys in (a few countries, like DRC, are a bit too chaotic for surveys). They've covered over half the world's population.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

8. Interesting who HATES us.

Egypt and Pakistan aren't surprising. I guess Jordan because of the Palestinians living there. Why Turkey?

Interesting that Iran doesn't. Most there have had enough of the Mullahs.

[octoberlib]

12. This doesn't surprise me at all

I think America has self esteem issues. Bullies usually do.