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Press Releases
Poll: Global views of USA improve
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After years of becoming progressively more negative, public views
of the United States have begun to improve, according to a 91Èȱ¬
World Service poll across 34 countries.
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While views of US influence in the world are still predominantly
negative, they have improved in 11 of the 23 countries the 91Èȱ¬
polled a year ago, while worsening in just three countries.
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The average percentage saying that the US is having a positive
influence has increased from 31% a year ago to 35% today while the view that it is having a negative influence has
declined from 52% to 47%.
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Looking just at the countries that have been polled in each of the
last four years, positive views of the US eroded from 2005 (38% on
average), to 2006 (32%), and to 2007 (28%); recovering for the
first time this year to 32%.
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People were asked to rate Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany,
India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the USA
and the European Union, as having a mainly positive or negative
influence in the world.
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As was the case a year ago, Iran and Israel receive the most
negative ratings.
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While negative views of Israel have eased over
the last year from 57 to 52%, negative views of Iran's
influence have held steady at 54% making it the most
negatively rated of the countries tested. Pakistan follows Israel
as the third most poorly rated country.
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Similar to last year, Japan is among the most positively rated
countries. However, it comes a close second to Germany which is
included in the ratings for the first time. The European Union
comes third.
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The country with the greatest improvement is Russia. Positive views
of Russia have risen on average from 29% to 37% and
negative views have fallen from 40% to 33%. In 12
countries, the view of Russia grew more positive.
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The 91Èȱ¬ World Service poll has been tracking opinions about country
influence in the world since 2005.
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These latest results are based
on 17,457 in-home or telephone interviews conducted across a total
of 34 countries (including the 23 tracking countries) by the
international polling firm GlobeScan together with the Program on
International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of
Maryland.
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GlobeScan coordinated fieldwork between 31 October 2007
and 25 January 2008.
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Steven Kull, Director of PIPA, comments: "It may be that as the US
approaches a new presidential election, views of the US are being
mitigated by hope that a new administration will move away from the
foreign policies that have been so unpopular in the world."
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GlobeScan President Doug Miller added: "The poll suggests that Iran
continues to pay a price for its nuclear stand-off with the United
Nations. World opinion continues to see it as the country having
the most negative influence."
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Notes to Editors
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More detailed findings from the poll and background are available in the PDF file on the right-hand side of this page.
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91Èȱ¬ World Service Press Office
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