Gallup poll has India in sixth place, Pakistan 2nd most unfavorable.
Bureau Report
NEW YORK: Americans favor India more than Israel and Mexico, while Pakistan and North Korea find themselves at the bottom of the heap, being least favorable, according to a new Gallup poll.
Americans react most positively to two English-speaking countries — Canada and Great Britain — that are longtime U.S. allies and to two countries — Germany and Japan — that were the major U.S. foes in World War II about 70 years ago. All four of these countries are now democracies with economic systems that in many ways reflect the same dynamics as the U.S. system. Eighty percent or more of Americans have favorable images of Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan.
Three additional countries, France, India — at sixth place, and Israel, are “above water” — although they are not at the top of the list, they engender attitudes from Americans that are much more favorable than unfavorable.
Of Canada, Germany, Great Britain, India, Israel, and Japan, Americans who tend to be negative or positive about any of these countries tend to be negative or positive about the others in the group. All of these countries are democracies that are considered U.S. allies, regardless of their geographic differences and levels of development.
Seven countries have higher unfavorable ratings than favorable, though generally not by very wide margins. These include Mexico, whose ratings almost break even, and Russia, China, and Venezuela. Venezuela’s relatively high rating – 40% of Americans hold favorable views, 47% unfavorable – is interesting, given the strongly anti-American stance of that country’s late leader, Hugo Chavez (these data were collected before his death). Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba are at the bottom of this third group; each receives a majority of unfavorable opinions.
Nearly nine in 10 Americans have an unfavorable view of Iran, making it the worst rated country out of 22 asked about. Seven other countries — Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Pakistan, and North Korea — also receive unfavorable ratings of 70% or more.
The Gallup’s World Affairs survey provides a unique window into Americans’ top-of-mind reactions toward a number of countries that are frequently in the news. Many of these reactions are negative: Americans give 15 out of the 22 countries a more unfavorable than favorable rating.
Gallup has monitored Americans’ attitudes toward many of these countries for decades, and some, like Iran and North Korea, consistently get high or low favorable ratings.
The eight countries with the most negative ratings all currently are or over the past decade were involved in wars, disputes, or turmoil — in a number of instances, in ways that are overtly hostile to the U.S. The currently “hostile” category includes Iran and North Korea. Libya was overtly hostile toward the U.S. under the government of Moammar Gadhafi, and more recently was the country in which U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed. The U.S. actively invaded two of the countries in this bottom tier — Iraq and Afghanistan — in efforts to overthrow their governments or controlling factions. Syria is in the middle of major domestic turmoil at this time.
The U.S.-Pakistani relationship is beset with rockiness despite the strained cooperation between the two on military matters. And continuing Gallup research has shown that Americans strongly favor Israel’s side of the enduring conflict between that country and the Palestinian Authority, helping explain why the latter is in this bottom group.
Of the two countries that border the U.S., Americans perceive Canada significantly more favorably than Mexico. There is a significant and positive correlation between ratings of these two countries such that Americans who rate one highly rate the other highly as well.
Despite its status as a strong U.S. ally, Israel is not in the top group of countries. Israel and the Palestinian Authority comprise one of the few country pairs that are significantly correlated in a negative direction, meaning that Americans who rate one favorably tend to rate the other unfavorably.
Also, interestingly, Cuba, despite its more than 50-year status as an implacable enemy of the U.S., is also not in the bottom group. Americans’ images of Russia and China are now virtually identical. Americans’ attitudes toward Russia and China are closely related, meaning those who rate one positively are also likely to rate the other positively.
The strongest relationships in terms of Americans’ ratings of two countries are between Great Britain and Canada and between Iraq and Afghanistan. Americans who like one of the countries in these pairs also strongly tend to like the other — and the same is true for negative sentiment.