Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Americans see a number of economic threats from China, but they are also worried about cyberattacks, Bejing’s human rights record, China’s impact on the environment and its growing military strength.
Despite historical and territorial frictions, people in Asia-Pacific countries tend to view their neighbors in a positive light. But they express limited confidence in the region’s most prominent national leaders.
Three years after being elected president, Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto is increasingly unpopular, and his ratings on specific issues, such as education, corruption and fighting drugs and crime, have dropped sharply.
Outside its own borders, neither Russia nor its president, Vladimir Putin, receives much respect or support, with a median of only 30% across 39 nations surveyed seeing Russia favorably.
While Latin Americans approve of the U.S. re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, they hold mixed views on Cuba overall and have little confidence in Raul Castro.
As the Islamic militant group ISIS continues to entrench itself in Syria and Iraq, concerns about Islamic extremism are growing in the West and in countries with significant Muslim populations.
People in many countries around the world, particularly in Latin America and Africa, list climate change as a top worry. Americans, Europeans and Middle Easterners, however, most frequently cite ISIS as their top threat.
The first decade of this century witnessed an historic reduction in global poverty and a near doubling of the number of people who could be considered middle income. But the emergence of a truly global middle class is still far from fruition.
Ratings for the U.S. remain mostly positive, with a global median of 69% expressing a favorable view. Countries also express broad support for America’s military efforts against ISIS, but are critical of the U.S. government’s use of torture after 9/11.
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