The recent gang rape and killing of a young woman in New Delhi – and the subsequent protests – have focused worldwide attention on gender issues in India. A 2010 Pew Global Attitudes Project survey that examined attitudes about gender around the world sheds some light on how public opinion in India compares to the other 21 nations surveyed.

Fully 92% of Indians said that women should have equal rights with men. But when asked specifically which gender should take priority in the workplace during tough times or in higher education, attitudes in India are less supportive of gender equality than in many other countries around the world.¹ (The survey did not include specific questions about sexual harassment or rape.)

Virtually all Indians (95%) agreed that women should be able to work outside the home. But more than eight-in-ten (84%) said that when jobs are scarce, men “should have more right to a job than women.” That response made India stand out – it was among the highest percentages in the nations surveyed; a similar percentage (82%) said this in Pakistan.

By comparison, 97% of Americans said women should be able to work outside the home, while just 14% said that when jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job. That was among the lowest percentage on this question, comparable to the 12% that said this in Britain and Spain.

The view that men get more opportunities than women for jobs that pay well, even when women are as qualified for the job, was widespread in most of the countries surveyed. In India, 83% agreed with this statement, among the highest along with Germany (84%) and Poland (83%). In the U.S., roughly two-thirds (68%) agreed.

On a separate question, more than six-in-ten in India (63%) agreed that a university education is more important for a boy than for a girl, the highest number to say this in the survey. About half in Pakistan (51%), Egypt (50%) and China (48%) also expressed this view.

In the U.S., 83% disagreed. Similarly, more than eight-in-ten disagreed in Britain (87%), Brazil (87%), France (87%), Mexico (84%) and Germany (83%). Virtually all of those surveyed in Lebanon (97%) disagreed.

A majority of Indians (60%) said that a marriage in which both husband and wife have jobs and take care of the house and children is a more satisfying way of life than having the husband provide financially while the wife cares for the household. That’s lower than the majorities in many other countries, including 91% in Spain and France, 84% in Brazil and 78% in China. In the U.S., 71% said a marriage in which both husband and wife have jobs is more satisfying.

Other data also shows India as a country with a continuing gender gap. The World Economic Forum ranked India 105th out of 135 countries in its 2012 Global Gender Gap Index. By comparison, several northern European countries – Iceland, Finland and Norway – top the list, meaning men and women are more likely to have equal opportunities. In this year’s report, the U.S. ranked 22nd.

The ratings combine four sub-indexes to come up with the overall ranking: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.

According to the World Economic Forum, India’s ranking gained eight places in 2012 compared to a year ago as a result of improvements in the educational attainment and political empowerment sub-indexes. Still, it is the lowest ranking among emerging BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China in the index.

Have American parents become too pushy about their kids’ education? Many experts seem to think so, judging from several new books by journalists and psychologists that bemoan the growing pressure students feel to do well in school. But at least one group of non-experts — the American public — begs to differ. According to a Pew Global Attitudes survey, most Americans think parents are not pushing their children hard enough.

By a ratio of nearly four-to-one, adults in this country say that American parents are placing too little (56%) rather than too much (15%) pressure on students, with the remaining quarter (24%) saying that parents are exerting the right amount of pressure. Parents and non-parents feel roughly the same way about this question, the survey finds. So do Republicans and Democrats, blacks and whites, older adults and younger adults, people with low incomes and those with high incomes, and people with college degrees and those with a just a high school education or less. The only demographic gap in attitudes about this question — and it’s not especially wide — comes on the gender front. More men (62%) than women (51%) say parents aren’t being tough enough.

To find more substantial differences in attitudes about parental pressure on students, one needs to look east. Far East. When the same question was posed in China, India, and Japan about parents in those respective countries, the results were the mirror image of those found in the United States.¹

In these three Asian countries, solid majorities say children are under too much pressure from parents, and very few believe children face too little pressure. The surveys were conducted from March to May, 2006.

Many Asian countries are known for rigorous educational systems that place heavy pressure on students to perform well on high-stakes university entrance exams and in international academic competitions.

In Japan, for example, parents often send their children to private juku, or “cram schools,” where they spend many hours beyond the regular school day supplementing their studies and preparing for college entrance exams. When the Japanese government recently took steps to reduce student workloads, it met with criticism from parents concerned about the country’s drop from first place in 2000 to fourth place in 2003 on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) mathematics literacy test.

Roughly six-in-ten Japanese (59%) say all this pressure is too much, while 30% feel the demands are about right. Only 9% say students need more parental pressure — a figure that stands in stark contrast to the 56% of Americans who feel this way about students here.

In an email exchange, author Alexandra Robbins, whose book, The Overachievers: the Secret Lives of Driven Kids, focuses on the United States but includes a chapter on Asia, noted that “exam fever” is widespread in Asian countries. “In Asia, unlike the U.S., the college you attend can mean the difference between a distinguished professional career or a life of menial labor,” she wrote.

Even so, Robbins’ book is one of several that argues that Americans students are under growing pressure to perform well at school. “I strongly believe,” she says in her email, “that the American public isn’t aware of just how much pressure children are feeling, because many parents don’t necessarily pressure intentionally.”

There’s a debate in education circles about whether this pressure is being felt around the country, or whether it tends to be confined to upper income areas such as Bethesda, Maryland, where Robbins conducted most of her research. Recent studies by the RAND Corporation and the Brookings Institution have found that American students average less than one hour each night on homework, hardly the demanding schedule of an overstressed juku student. And American students generally rank far below their Japanese counterparts on international tests. For example, the U.S. placed 24th out of 29 developed countries on the 2003 PISA math literacy test and 19th on the science literacy test. So perhaps the public is on to something.

Nearly half of Americans and British who were surveyed (46% each) mention economic difficulties most often, as do four-in-ten Canadians and French (40%, 37%). And in some middle-income countries that have suffered economic downturns recently – notably, Argentina, Turkey and Russia – as many cite economic problems as in many of the most impoverished nations such as Senegal, Mali and Bangladesh.

Joblessness is a major concern in Latin America. Fully 40% of Peruvians and roughly three-in-ten Bolivians, Brazilians and Argentines mentioned unemployment as the leading problem facing them and their families. Inflation and high prices are generally viewed as less of a problem, though 58% of Indonesians point to this as their main concern. Again, this is not surprising given that prices were rising dramatically in Indonesia in 2002.

In many poor countries, there is a range of competing problems aside from a lack of money or work. Fully six-in-ten Angolans cite health concerns as most important, (28% specifically referring to the lack of clean water). More than in any other countries, people in Angola, Pakistan, Russia and Uzbekistan cite housing as a major problem. And in Bangladesh, 47% of the public cites personal family problems and other troubled social relations as most important to them.

In Germany and Italy, slightly more people named health problems than the economy as their top personal concern. And health is the second leading concern in most other nations, regardless of economic status. Despite wide variations in income, roughly the same proportion of respondents in South Korea, India, Russia and Ghana cite health concerns as among the most important in their lives.

Throughout much of Asia, educational concerns rank relatively high in people’s minds. While many refer specifically to the availability of quality education for their children, even more prevalent are worries about educational expenses. In most countries where educational concerns rank high, it is the cost of providing education for children that is mentioned most by those surveyed.

Crime is a particularly salient issue in Latin America. This is seen not only in the high level of personal concern over this issue, but also in the in the overwhelming perception among people in this region that crime is a major national problem.

One third of Hondurans (32%) cite crime as the most important problem they and their families face, and this concern is also widespread in Mexico and Guatemala. Outside of Latin America, only South Africans raise crime as a major personal concern, reflecting that country’s high crime rate.

Japanese tend to take a dim view of their lives and their futures, as might be expected in a country where the economy has been stagnant for a decade. But as in similar surveys in the past, Japanese respondents were hesitant to voice any major personal concerns. Fully 43% of Japanese respondents – a far greater proportion than any other country – acknowledge no major personal problems. Among those who did give a response, economic and health problems stood out.

Outside West, Dissatisfaction Prevalent

Most people in the West have a positive view of their personal lives. Two-thirds of Canadians and nearly as many Americans give their current lives the highest rating – at least seven on a scale from zero to ten. Smaller majorities in Western Europe also express a great deal of satisfaction with their lives today.

But aside from a few other pockets of contentment, people outside the West express far lower levels of satisfaction. Fewer than four-in-ten people in every African country surveyed rate their lives highly, possibly reflecting the fact that African nations account for nine of the eleven poorest countries in the Global Attitudes survey.

Generally, personal satisfaction in a country is strongly linked to per capita income adjusted for price differences between economies. While respondents in much of Eastern Europe express low satisfaction with their personal lives, those in the Czech Republic – which has the highest per capita income in the region – are a notable exception. Four-in-ten Czechs give their lives the highest rating, more than any other nation in the region. By contrast, nearly half of Bulgarians and over a quarter of Russians and Ukrainians give their lives very low ratings (three or less on a scale of zero to ten).

Still, income alone does not always predict how people evaluate their lives. Personal satisfaction in Mexico and South Korea is at roughly the same level as in Western Europe, which has a much higher per capita income than those two countries. And respondents in Turkey express less satisfaction with their lives than people in other nations in the Middle East/Conflict Area. Turkey has the highest adjusted per capita income among those countries, although its economy has been mired in a recession.

Young More Optimistic – Especially in Eastern Europe

For the most part, Eastern Europeans are unhappy with their lives today, particularly when compared with people in Western Europe. Only about a fifth (19%) of the respondents in Russia rate their lives highly, and this is similar across most other former Soviet-bloc nations.

Yet there are signs that Eastern Europeans believe their lives have improved since communism collapsed in the early 1990s. In The Pulse of Europe, a multinational survey conducted in 1991, fewer than one-in-ten Russians (7%), Ukrainians (7%) and Bulgarians (3%) rated their lives highly.

In addition, young people in these countries are far more optimistic today than their elders. While in Western Europe there is a modest age gap over how people view their lives, that gap is much wider in Eastern Europe. In the Slovak Republic, twice as many people younger than age 35 give their lives the highest rating, compared with those 60 and older. Even in Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria, which have the lowest personal satisfaction levels in the region, young people are much happier with their lives than their elders.

Perceptions of Progress

Not only do people in North America and Western Europe express satisfaction with their current lives, they generally believe their lives have improved over the last five years. This also is the case in Asia, with the prominent exception of Japan, where the economy has been stagnant and unemployment is at record levels. But there is a mixed record of progress elsewhere in the world.

Most Argentines believe their lives were better in the late 1990s, before that nation’s devastating economic and political crisis. Seven-in-ten (69%) give their lives of five years ago a high rating. But six-in-ten say they have lost ground since then, while just 19% think their lives have gotten better. In Venezuela, pessimism is nearly as prevalent; 57% say life has gotten worse over the past five years compared with 23% who think things have improved.

While Eastern Europeans feel their lives are better off since the collapse of communism, many say they have lost ground over the past five years. A majority of Bulgarians (55%) believe their lives are worse today, as do pluralities in Ukraine, the Slovak Republic and Poland. Again, Czechs are the exception – 41% think they have made progress while 27% believe they have lost ground. Russians are divided on this point (37% say they have lost ground, 36% feel they have made progress).

On balance, people in Turkey, Pakistan and Lebanon all believe their lives have gotten worse over the past five years. By two-to-one (49%-24%), respondents in Turkey say they have lost ground compared with five years ago. Comparable pluralities in Pakistan and Lebanon agree. By comparison, Jordanians and Egyptians have a net positive opinion of the progress made over the past five years.

While Asians give their current lives a modest rating, in most countries there is a sense that things have improved. In China, for example, 42% of respondents rate their current lives more highly than their lives of five years ago, while 27% disagree. In Bangladesh and Vietnam, majorities say have made progress over the past five years. But in Japan, nearly twice as many feel their lives have gotten worse in that period as believe things have improved (39% vs. 21%).

Looking Ahead: Optimism Reigns

Even in countries where people are gloomy about the present and recent past, there is broad optimism about the future. Asked to assess the state of their lives five years from now, more people in every country express optimism than pessimism.

That is the overwhelming sentiment in seven of the eight Asian nations surveyed. In Bangladesh and Vietnam, only about one-in-twenty expect life to get worse over the next five years, while solid majorities believe their lives will improve. Optimism is also the dominant view in South Korea, China and Philippines. Japanese, by contrast, are more conflicted. Roughly a third (34%) expect their lives to improve, while 27% say their lives will be worse.

People in Latin America also are bullish about the future. In Venezuela, where a majority thinks that life has gotten worse in the past five years, there is widespread optimism. Six-in-ten (62%) believe their lives will be better off five years from now. That view is not as widely shared in economically beleaguered Argentina. Still, optimists outnumber pessimists by 14 points (36%-22%).

In North America and Western Europe, respondents also express a high degree of confidence about their personal futures, though there is a bit less optimism in Germany than elsewhere. Fully 61% of Americans rate their personal future more highly than the present, while just 7% expect their lives to get worse. That is the dominant view in Canada and Great Britain as well, though less so in France and Italy. In Germany, 35% rate their future life better, 19% see it as worse. Respondents in former East Germany are less optimistic about the future than are those in the West.

Interestingly, although the Czech Republic stands out among Eastern European countries for levels of personal satisfaction, a relatively high proportion of Czechs (25%) believe life will get worse over the next five years. Respondents in Bulgaria have a strikingly negative view of the present, but there is as much optimism about the future in Bulgaria as there is in the Czech Republic.

Children’s Lives: More Optimism in East Than West

In most countries, there are profound differences between how people view their own lives and futures and how they view those of their children. Significantly, while respondents in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe express far more personal satisfaction and optimism than people living in other countries, their perceptions of continuing progress do not extend over a longer time frame when asked what the future holds for their nation’s children.

Half of Americans think children will be worse off when they grow up, compared with 41% who think their lives will be better. The British hold a similar view, while Italians, French and Canadians are even more pessimistic about what lies ahead for their country’s children. By nearly three-to-one, Italians think children will be worse off when they grow up compared with how people live today.

Yet most Asian respondents – outside of Japan – have an upbeat sense of children’s futures. Eight-in-ten Chinese say the country’s children will be better off than people today; just 9% say children’s lives will be worse. South Koreans, Indians and Indonesians are bit less optimistic, but they still have greater confidence about children’s futures than do Americans or Europeans. But the Japanese are even more pessimistic about their children’s lives than they are about the present or the future. By nearly four-to-one (67%-18%), Japanese believe that when the current generation of children comes of age, their lives will be worse than people today.

The gap in optimism between Eastern and Western Europe when people were asked about their own futures is largely reversed when they look to the future of their nation’s children. Solid majorities of Czechs, Slovaks and Ukrainians say children will be better off than people today. Even in Bulgaria and Russia, more respondents see children’s futures as positive than negative. Poland is the only country in the former Soviet bloc where people are more likely to see children faring worse than people today.

Most Content With Family Lives

Respondents in every country voice more satisfaction with their family lives than with their incomes or jobs. But there are some countries – including several with substantial Muslim populations and two in Eastern Europe – where significant minorities have a negative view of their family lives.

Fully 44% of Jordanians and 36% of Pakistanis say they are very or somewhat dissatisfied with their family situation. Nearly three-in-ten Bangladeshis and Indonesians also voice dissatisfaction with their family lives (28%, 27%). In Russia and Ukraine there also is notable dissatisfaction with family life; roughly three-in-ten of those surveyed express that opinion.

Turning to the financial side of life, roughly seven-in-ten respondents in North America and Western Europe say they are very or somewhat satisfied with their household income. In Asia, people also have a generally positive view of their earnings. Even in Japan, where fewer than one-in-ten rate give the economy a positive rating, 58% say they are at least somewhat satisfied with their household income.

But in much of Eastern Europe, the overwhelmingly negative opinion people have of national economic conditions parallels how they view their personal financial situations. Only about one-in-five respondents in Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria are satisfied with their household income. Only in the Czech Republic and to a lesser degree the Slovak Republic do many people take a positive view of their earnings.

In all but a few countries, majorities of working people express satisfaction with their jobs. Job satisfaction is particularly high in North America and Western Europe, while it is especially low among working people in Jordan (20%) and a number of African nations.

Going Without: A Common Experience

Except in the industrialized countries, significant numbers of respondents in virtually every other nation report that in the past year there have been times when they have been unable to afford food, clothing or medical care.

It is important to note that this question is not a direct measure of deprivation; rather it asks respondents whether they have been able to afford these basic items. As might be expected, people in countries with low per capita incomes, especially in Africa and Latin America, are most likely to say they have been unable to afford food, clothing and health care. Majorities in seven of ten African countries surveyed say they have gone without food at some point over the past year for lack of money.

Yet clearly, this experience is commonplace in higher income nations as well. Roughly half of Russians say there have been times when they have been unable to pay for food (50%) and health care (54%) in the past year, and 68% have forgone buying clothing. The number reporting such deprivations is comparable in Ukraine and Bulgaria.

The global survey shows that going without some basic necessities is far more common in the United States than in other major countries. A quarter of Americans say they have at least occasionally been unable to afford health care in the past year, while 19% have gone without clothing and 15% food. Overall, a third of Americans say they have encountered at least one of these hardships in the past year. Such findings are in line with Gallup and Pew Research Center surveys dating back to the 1970s.

By comparison, levels of deprivation are significantly lower in Western Europe, Japan, and such countries as the Czech Republic and South Korea. In Japan, just 9% say they have been unable to afford food, clothing or health care in the past year, the lowest level of the 44 countries surveyed.

Although just four-in-ten Americans (41%) have a positive view of national conditions, people in the United States rank as one of the more contented populations in the world. Canada is the only country in the West where a majority of those surveyed (56%) is satisfied with the way things are going. The other relatively happy publics are in less open societies: China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

There are great disparities in national satisfaction within and between regions. People in Canada and the United States are four times more likely than Latin Americans to express satisfaction with the state of their nation. There is a smaller but still substantial divide in Europe. People in Western Europe are twice as likely as those in most East European nations to give a positive rating to national conditions, though Czechs have more in common with the west than the east on this question.

Similarly, respondents in China and Vietnam are much more satisfied with their country than are people in most other parts of Asia. In Africa, satisfaction is highest in Tanzania, Angola, Uganda and Mali. All of these countries have economically outperformed their regional counterparts in recent years.

The Middle East/Conflict Area is the only region where there is no apparent relationship between satisfaction with the state of affairs in the country and recent national economic performance. Among these countries, satisfaction is highest in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, though other nations have grown faster.

National Economies Viewed Negatively

By an overwhelming margin in almost all countries, people have a negative view of economic conditions in their country. This perception is particularly prevalent in countries where the economy is performing very poorly: in Latin America and in Japan, where economies are expected to shrink in 2002; most of Eastern Europe, where growth is slowing; much of Africa, where inflation remains strong; and in Indonesia and Turkey, which are actually growing faster this year than last but still live under the burden of huge international debts.

Among the 44 countries surveyed, majorities in just seven give their nation’s economy a favorable rating. These positive attitudes can be explained in part by recent economic trends. In Canada, where seven-in-ten rate conditions as good, both the economy and the number of jobs are growing the fastest among major nations. In Great Britain, which is outperforming the rest of Europe, 65% see the economy as good.

While people are profoundly pessimistic about the current state of their country’s economy, they are strongly optimistic about their national economic prospects over the next year. In 27 of the 44 countries surveyed, a plurality or majority think the economy will get better. Some of the most optimistic people live in Africa – in Mali (87%), Ghana (81%) and the Ivory Coast (80%) – where overwhelming majorities of the people think economic conditions will improve over the next 12 months.

Nearly half of Americans (48%) think the economy will brighten. But only a third of the French (32%) and one-in-five Russians (22%) agree. In only four nations, Lebanon (58%), Turkey (49%), the Slovak Republic (44%) and Argentina (33%) is the dominant sentiment that the economic situation will get worse. In other countries – including most of Europe both East and West, China, Japan and Canada – people are neither optimistic nor pessimistic; they think the economic future will look a lot like the present.

Where Optimism Prevails

People in the Western Hemisphere nations are generally more optimistic than those in Europe. And within Europe, Western Europeans have a slightly brighter view of the economic future than do those in the East. This division is seen starkly in Germany itself, where 42% of those surveyed in what was formerly West Germany think the economy will improve, compared with only 27% who have such faith in former East Germany.

Attitudes about the economy over the next year vary widely in Asia and the Middle East/Conflict Area. Those surveyed in Egypt (46%) are much more optimistic than those in Lebanon (14%). The public in South Korea (48%) is slightly more upbeat about the future than those in China (36%) or India (36%).

Significantly, in many countries in which there is general pessimism over current conditions, most people have hope for the future. In these nations, the public may feel that the economy is so bad today it can only get better in the future. In Peru, for example, 84% of those surveyed lament current economic conditions, but 81% think the economy will brighten within a year. There is a similar combination of deep anxiety about present economic conditions with strong faith in a better future in other Latin American nations such as Brazil, Honduras and Venezuela, as well as in Nigeria.

But in a number of countries – including Argentina, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the Slovak Republic — the public is mired in pessimism, with people thinking things are bad today and will not improve or could even get worse over the next year. The deepest gloom is in Japan, where 93% of the public gives the economy a bad grade today and 89% think present conditions will last or deteriorate.

In Their Own Words…Economy Is Top Concern

When people are asked to describe in their own words the top problem facing their country, the economy also dominates. This is consistent with the finding that in countries around the world, people volunteer the economy as their most important personal problem.

This is particularly the case in Africa and the Middle East/Conflict Area. In several countries in these regions, including Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan and Turkey, more than eight-in-ten respondents volunteered the economy as their nation’s most important problem, with joblessness among their primary concerns.

Economic anxiety also is widespread throughout Latin America. In that region, general economic problems are cited as the principal national concern in most nations, especially in Peru (84%) and in Bolivia (77%), Venezuela (76%). Unemployment is again what troubles people the most.

Yet there are exceptions to this pattern, including the United States, where terrorism and the threat of war are mentioned more frequently than economic troubles, poverty or unemployment. In South Korea, issues such as corruption, political power struggles, and problems with North Korea are raised by seven-in-ten of those questioned. And in the Czech Republic, Great Britain and Nigeria, more people cite political problems than more general economic concerns. Their complaints are frequently about government corruption and inefficiency.

Rating National Problems

The broad range of issues afflicting global publics is also seen when people are asked to rate the importance of specific problems their country may face. In 19 of the 44 countries in the Global Attitudes survey, more people rate crime as a “very big problem” than any other issue. This is the case in most of Western and Eastern Europe, and in five of eight nations surveyed in Latin America.

Respondents in 13 nations rate AIDS and infectious diseases as the principal threats, especially in Africa where they are the number one concern in eight of ten countries surveyed. Corruption ranks a close third, with people in 11 countries saying it is their nation’s biggest problem. Ethnic strife is the greatest concern only in Senegal, water problems only in Jordan. And nowhere are immigration, emigration, moral decline or the quality of public schools seen as the principal national problem.

Global Crime Epidemic

There is nearly universal anxiety over crime. In fact, in every region but North America majorities in nearly every country cite crime as a “very big problem.” Only in Jordan, Canada, China and South Korea is crime seen as a lesser concern.

The extent of public anxiety about crime is most evident in Latin America. Roughly nine-in-ten respondents in Guatemala, Honduras and Argentina rate crime as a very big problem; no fewer than 65% in any country in the region view this as a major concern. This is consistent with the responses Latin Americans give when they are asked in an open-ended format to name their most pressing national problem. More Hondurans volunteer crime, particularly delinquency, than any other issue; it is the second leading concern in Mexico and Guatemala, where delinquency, robberies and vandalism are a problem.

But crime is not just a concern in poor countries. More Europeans rate crime as a very big problem than any other issue; the lone exception is the Slovak Republic. And nearly half of Americans view crime as a very big national problem, putting it on par with terrorism and moral decline as the top national issues.

Corruption: A Related Concern

In many nations, worries about crime and political corruption go hand in hand, with similarly large majorities citing both as major problems. In Japan, for example, 85% see crime as a very big problem and the same number say that about corruption. The notable exception is Great Britain, where six-in-ten people (61%) view crime as a significant problem, but only two-in-ten (21%) say that about official corruption.

Dishonest political leaders are a prevalent national concern in Latin America. Nine-in-ten Argentines rate corruption as a very big problem, more than any other issue. It also is the leading concern in Peru (82%) and Bolivia (70%), and it ranks only behind crime in Guatemala (84%). Yet corruption also is a dominant concern in Asia and Eastern Europe. More than seven-in-ten respondents in every Asian country, and at least six-in-ten in every Eastern European country, rate corruption as a national problem.

AIDS Impact Felt Well Beyond Africa

As might be expected, concern over the spread of infectious diseases is highest in Africa, where AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other illnesses have taken a deadly toll. Nine-in-ten respondents in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda judge disease a “very big problem,” while eight-in-ten share that judgment in the other African nations in the survey.

But worry about AIDS and other diseases is nearly as great in Latin America, where overwhelming majorities – 93% in Honduras, 82% in Guatemala and 79% in Peru – see the spread of disease as a major problem. Asians are only slightly less concerned about AIDS and other epidemics.

By contrast, in North America and Europe, where preventive health measures are more readily available than in other parts of the world, AIDS and other infectious diseases are less of a concern. Among these countries, only in France, Italy, Ukraine and Russia do strong majorities think the spread of infectious illnesses is a major threat to their nations. The nation least concerned about the spread of disease is Jordan, where fewer than one-in-four (23%) see such health problems as a big national problem.

Latin America’s Terrorism Fears

A little over a year after Sept. 11, it is hardly surprising that half those surveyed in the United States (50%) say terrorism is a very big problem, ranking it above moral decline, crime or corruption. But concern over terrorism is even greater in countries where terrorist attacks have been part of life for years.

Nine-in-ten in Bangladesh (92%) and India (90%) and nearly eight-in-ten in Pakistan (78%) cite terrorism as a major issue. Terrorism concerns are even more widespread in Latin America, where majorities in every country identify it as a very important problem for the country. In other parts of the world, fear of terrorism varies from nation to nation. South Koreans and Canadians are among the least likely to rate terrorism as a major threat.

Competing Concerns

The level of concern over other national issues varies widely from region to region, and often within regions:

Education is seen as a major problem throughout Latin America, in much of Africa and in Pakistan and Turkey. On average, six-in-ten respondents in Latin America and more than half of Africans view poor schools as a top national concern. The Vietnamese, Poles and Bulgarians are the least worried about their schools.

Concern about moral decline is particularly high in countries with large Muslim populations, especially in Bangladesh (86%), Turkey (75%), Mali (69%) and Indonesia (68%). More broadly, the perceived breakdown in social moral order – as reflected in public concern about crime, political corruption and moral decline – is often sharply felt in Muslim nations, where strong majorities are very troubled by this nexus of issues.

But these concerns also are widespread in many traditionally Catholic countries – Honduras, Guatemala, Argentina, Peru and Italy. Moral decline also is the second most cited major problem in the United States. In general, those least concerned about moral issues live in relatively secular societies, such as Canada, Great Britain and Germany.

Ethnic conflict is a major concern in nations with a recent history of civil strife: Senegal (83%), Nigeria (76%), Lebanon (74%), India (71%), and Indonesia (69%). Racial, religious and ethnic tensions are less likely to be seen as a top national problem in major industrial societies.

Nevertheless, half of Italians and more than four-in-ten French cite ethnic discord as a major national concern, as do three-in-ten Americans, British and Germans. Jordanians (9%), Bulgarians (10%), Canadians (12%), Poles (19%) and Japanese (20%) are the least likely to think ethnic conflict is a big issue in their societies.

Meanwhile, in very poor nations the absence of simple basic necessities, such as drinking water, remains a serious national concern. Two-in-three people in Angola, Nigeria and Honduras, and six-in-ten in Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Mali, Bangladesh and India worry about the quality or availability of water for daily drinking, cooking and bathing. Somewhat surprisingly, nearly half those surveyed in France, Italy and Japan also complain about their water, suggesting water quality is a problem even in some wealthy nations.

Military Widely Admired

With the exception of Latin America, majorities in nearly every nation surveyed say the military is a good influence on the way things are going in their country. This is particularly noteworthy in Western societies. In the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and France, the armed forces are more admired than the national government, the president or prime minister, the news media, or religious leaders. And in Germany and Italy, the military rates a close second to the news media.

Reflecting the unsettled nature of local conditions, overwhelming majorities of Indians (85%), Pakistanis (84%) Uzbeks (91%) and Turks (79%) give the military high marks. There is also very strong support for the armed forces in most of Africa, particularly in Senegal (92%) and Mali (90%).

But in Latin America, which has recently emerged from a long history of military dictatorships, people take a more skeptical view of their armed forces. Just one-in-five Argentines and just three-in-ten Guatemalans believe their nation’s military has a positive influence. Similarly, many Eastern Europeans, including Ukrainians and Russians, show some wariness of their militaries.

Media Heralded Too

Journalists are often the target of criticism in the United States, but 65% of the American public says that in general the media have been a positive force in society. In Europe, news organizations also get high marks. This is particularly the case in Germany (77% positive), Bulgaria (77%) and Ukraine (75%). The media’s image is somewhat less positive in France, but even there 55% of respondents hold journalists in high regard.

In Germany, the media’s image has improved considerably over the past decade and is now among the highest in the region. In 1991, just half said German newspapers had a good influence on the nation. Journalists are viewed significantly better in every Eastern European country than they were right after the Cold War.

Elsewhere people think even more highly of the news media. In every Latin American country, except Venezuela, and in six of the ten African nations surveyed, the news media is the single most respected national institution. Worldwide, only in Jordan, Turkey and Japan do journalists get positive ratings from less than a majority of the public.

Conflicting Views of Religious Leaders

In most countries where the Global Attitudes’ polling was conducted, religious leaders are seen as having a positive influence. More than three-in-five Americans look favorably on their spiritual leaders.

Overwhelming majorities in Africa think religious institutions are a “good influence” on their countries, particularly in Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria. It is a sentiment shared somewhat less strongly in much of Latin America, especially Honduras and Guatemala.

But in several countries with widely different religious traditions, publics take a much more skeptical view of the influence of religious leaders.

Three-quarters of Japanese (74%) say the influence of religious leaders is at least somewhat negative, and three-in-ten see their influence as “very bad.” Argentines, as well, have at best mixed views of the effect of religious leaders in their country.

In Europe, roughly six-in-ten Germans and Czechs and nearly half of Italians (47%) say religious leaders have at least a moderately negative influence on society. Since 1991, the reputation of religious institutions has improved in the Slovak Republic and Poland, but it has fallen dramatically in the former East Germany, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

Among countries with substantial Muslim populations, attitudes toward religious leaders vary widely. Clerics are judged quite favorably in Indonesia (89%), Senegal (89%), Mali (75%) and Uzbekistan (69%). But just half of the Lebanese and Pakistanis agree. In general, the military is held in higher regard than religious leaders in most heavily Islamic nations. This is especially evident in Turkey. More than twice as many respondents in Turkey give the military a good rating as view religious leaders in positive terms (79% vs. 32%).

Fair Marks for Government

In countries around the world, people are generally more satisfied with their national governments than they are with overall national conditions. In several European countries, as well as the United States, the ratings for government are significantly higher than for the state of the nation.

Russia is a notable example of these widely differing opinions. Just 20% of Russians say they are satisfied with the way things are going in their country, but three times as many (59%) say the government has a positive influence. This no doubt reflects the broad popularity of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But there are several countries where ratings for government and national conditions are equally abysmal. In Argentina, just 3% are satisfied with the state of the nation, compared with an equally paltry 7% who see government’s influence as positive. Similarly, in Japan and Turkey the public is down on its government about as much as it is on state of the country.

For all of the criticism targeted at Washington, Americans are relatively pleased with their national government’s performance. Nearly two-in-three (64%) think it exerts a good influence on the country. As is the case in Russia, President Bush’s popularity may be a factor in the public’s positive assessment. This sentiment is shared in Canada and in Mexico, which give similarly positive marks to their national governments. In Mexico, four times as many respondents have a favorable view of government’s influence as express satisfaction with national conditions (64% vs. 16%).

This affirmative assessment is generally shared in Western Europe, where two-thirds of the British surveyed feel good about their government; 61% of French and roughly half of Germans share that sentiment. The majority of respondents in the Czech Republic (57%), which is about to join the European Union, also have a favorable opinion of their government. But in Italy, support for Rome is weak. Just four-in-ten Italians give the government good marks, possibly reflecting the relatively large proportion of Italians (61%) who view political corruption as a major problem.

Moderate to strong majorities in the African countries surveyed give their governments good marks. This is particularly true in Ghana (87%) and Uganda (84%), whose governments get some of the highest ratings in the world. More modest majorities have a positive opinion of governments in Asia, with the most favorable rating for the Philippine government. Notable exceptions are South Korea, where only 41% think their government is doing a good job, and Japan, where only 22% give the government good marks.

Respondents in Pakistan and Uzbekistan have overwhelmingly positive views of their government, but elsewhere in the Middle East/Conflict Area people have a more mixed opinion of the public sector. Just a quarter of those in Lebanon and fewer than one-in-ten Turks (7%) give their governments good ratings. The Turkish survey was concluded before national elections there in November.

EU Draws Broad Support

The European Union gets high marks from people in the region. In France, Italy and Germany, respondents rate the EU more highly than their own national governments. That is not the case in Great Britain, where more people view the national government as a positive influence. But even a majority of British (53%) says the EU is a good influence.

In every Western European nation surveyed, including Great Britain, strong supporters of the EU – those that judge the Brussels-based institution’s influence as “very good” – is larger than the number who give comparable ratings to their national government. One-fifth of Italians see the EU as a very good influence, compared with just 5% who say that about the government in Rome.

People in Eastern Europe – with the exception of Russians – also are more supportive of the European Union than they of their own governments, which helps explain why these countries are all trying to join the European single market. This is particularly the case in the Slovak Republic, where three times as many people give the EU a very high rating than say the same about their own government. Only in Poland and Russia does the EU draw less than majority support.

Respondents in Turkey, which has sought for years to join the EU, have a generally favorable reaction to the institution. Roughly half of Turkish respondents (52%) view the EU as a positive influence on their country. Still, opinion in Turkey is somewhat polarized. Compared with European nations, more people in Turkey see the EU as both a very good influence (24%) and a very bad influence (20%).

Government Ratings Linked to Economy

There is a strong correlation between how people view government generally and their assessment of their country’s economy. Governments that have lost their public’s support tend to be in countries where the economy has performed particularly poorly in recent years.

Argentina may be Exhibit A. Just one in a hundred Argentines think the economy is doing well. This is not surprising since the Argentine economy is expected to shrink dramatically this year and it has defaulted on its international debts. Just slightly more Argentines (7%) think their national administration is doing a good job. Similarly, only 7% of Japanese say the country’s economic situation is good (Japan’s economy is likely to contract this year), while 22% give their government a positive rating.

People in other countries with recent economic problems – Turkey, the Slovak Republic, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela – also hold their government in relatively low regard.

Bush, Putin Most Popular

U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin stand head and shoulders above their counterparts in personal popularity. Seven-in-ten Americans (71%) say Bush is having a good influence on how things are going in the country and 85% of Russians feel the same way about Putin. Both leaders are held in significantly higher regard than their predecessors in the 1991 “Pulse of Europe” survey. Bush’s rating is 15 percentage points higher than that of his father, George Bush. Putin’s rating is 46 points higher than Boris Yeltsin.

By comparison, 62% of the French hold a positive view of French President Jacques Chirac (the survey was taken after the French presidential election), while 54% of the British believe Prime Minister Tony Blair is a positive influence on the country. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has the support of about half (48%) of his citizens. And Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of economically beleaguered Japan has the least support among the G-8 leaders. Just 38% of the Japanese respondents give him a good rating.

European attitudes toward their political leadership have generally improved in the last decade, with some exceptions. Support for the president or prime minister has grown markedly in France (approval rating up 11 points), Germany (up 16 points), Poland (up 16 points), and Ukraine (up 14 points).

However, there has been a sharp reversal of public sentiment toward elected leaders in the Czech and Slovak Republics. In the first blush of good feelings after the fall of the Iron Curtain, 68% of Czechs approved of the job Vaclav Havel was doing. But in this survey, only 46% of Czechs have a favorable reaction to former Prime Minister Milos Zeman. (Vladimir Spidla is now prime minister.) Fewer than four-in-ten Slovaks (38%) feel positively about their prime minister, Mikulas Dzurinda. There has been a similar 19-point falloff in approval for the leadership in Bulgaria.

Support is high for the leaders of a number of other major countries. Three-quarters of Indians give Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee good marks. After two years in office and despite growing criticism at home, two-thirds of Mexicans still think reform-minded President Vicente Fox is doing a good job.

Seven-in-ten Indonesians are similarly supportive of President Megawati Sukarnoputri. And Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose government is locked in a war with Muslim guerrillas, enjoys equally strong approval.

People in countries with authoritarian regimes give their leaders, such as Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan (95% approval) and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan (76% approval), the high marks that might be expected for heads of governments that brook little opposition.

The dubious prize for the leader least respected by his citizens goes to former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit of Turkey: 91% of Turkish respondents thought was doing a bad job at the time of the survey. His government was replaced in the November Turkish elections. Among those heads of state still in power, poor grades were given to Alfonso Portillo of Guatemala (75% negative), Alejandro Toledo in Peru (76%) and Eduardo Duhalde (84%) of Argentina.

Immigrants Unpopular in Europe

Although immigration does not rival other issues as a big problem in people’s minds, immigrants and minority groups are generally seen as having a bad influence on the way things are going by people in most countries. At the same time, people in societies that have traditionally supplied the industrial world with immigrants deeply resent that their fellow countrymen are leaving home to seek work abroad.

Only in Canada does a strong majority of the population (77%) have a positive view of immigrants. Immigration is the source of two-thirds of Canada’s annual population growth and about one-in-five Canadians is foreign born, which may explain Canadian attitudes. Among other major industrial countries, Americans – who fancy their country as an ethnic melting pot – show the greatest support for immigrants (49%). Nevertheless, a large minority (43%) believes immigrants are bad for the nation.

Immigrants are particularly unpopular across Europe. In every European country, except Bulgaria, immigrants are seen as having a bad influence on the country. This negative sentiment may reflect the fact that for the first time in modern history, Western European nations are becoming immigrant societies. People born in other countries now comprise a large and growing minority in all of the Western European countries surveyed.

Negative sentiment is even higher in Eastern Europe. Strong majorities in the Czech and Slovak Republics take a dim view of immigration, as do a majority of Russians – a country where illegal immigration is soaring. Respondents in Poland and Ukraine have a somewhat less negative opinion of immigrants.

Deconstructing Anti-Immigrant Opinion

The survey finds considerable anti-immigrant sentiment in countries with shrinking economies, such as Argentina and Venezuela, where presumably competition is intense for scarce jobs. Yet frequently there is no clear linkage between attitudes toward immigrants and national economic conditions.

In Poland, where economic growth has been slow and unemployment high, people are less hostile toward immigrants than are respondents from the Czech Republic, where the economy has done slightly better. Similarly, unemployment is higher in France than in Great Britain. But the French hold immigrants in higher esteem than do the British, suggesting other non-economic issues may be important factors in public opinion toward immigrants.

Some rapidly aging industrial countries, such as Italy and Germany, which need workers to support their growing retiree populations, have the most negative attitudes toward immigrants. The same holds true in Japan, where nearly a fifth of the population is already over 65; still, more than half of Japanese have a negative opinion of immigrants.

Ironically, anti-immigrant sentiment is quite strong in a number of countries that have traditionally been a source of immigrants for other nations. In Guatemala, which sends thousands of its citizens to the United States each year, 58% of the survey’s respondents see immigrants as exerting a bad influence. In Turkey, which has supplied several million immigrants to Germany alone, half of those questioned say immigrants entering Turkey are bad for the country.

Emigration a Common Problem

Meanwhile, people in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East/Conflict Area, areas that people have left in droves in recent years for better opportunities in Western Europe and the United States, resent the loss of their fathers and sisters, mothers and sons.

Strong majorities in countries ranging from Honduras and Mexico to Poland and Turkey say emigration is a problem in their societies. The brain-and-brawn drain is not a concern limited to residents of poor countries. More than half of Canadians (55%) and Italians (65%) also worry about the long-term national consequences of emigration.