The United Nations General Assembly will open its 78th session on September 5 against the backdrop of favorable conditions. According to the Pew Research Center's spring survey, a median of 63% of the 24 countries surveyed have a positive view of the United Nations. A further 28% view it negatively. In most countries surveyed, the majority of citizens have a positive opinion of the United Nations.
This Pew Research Center analysis focuses on UN positions from 24 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this is the first time since 2019 that the center's Global Attitudes Survey includes countries in Africa and Latin America.
For data outside the U.S., this analysis is based on a nationally representative survey of 27,285 adults conducted from February 20 to May 22, 2023. All surveys were conducted by telephone among adults in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Japan. The Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The survey was conducted face-to-face in Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, and South Africa. In Australia, we used a mixed-mode probability-based online panel.
We surveyed 3,576 adults in the United States from March 20 to 26, 2023. All participants in this study are members of the Center's American Trends Panel (ATP) online survey panel, assembled through a nationwide random sampling. Address of residence. In this way, nearly all American adults have the opportunity to choose. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, and other categories. Learn more about ATP's methodology here.
Below are the questions and answers used in the analysis, as well as the research methodology.
Views of the United Nations are particularly positive in Kenya, Poland, South Korea and Sweden, with approximately 8 in 10 people expressing a positive opinion.
However, in some countries, negative opinions of the United Nations are more common than positive. In Israel, for example, 62% have a negative view of the organization, the highest percentage of all countries surveyed. Israelis have historically expressed negative views of the United Nations, with at least 58% viewing the organization negatively since the question was first asked in 2007.
Similarly, in Japan, 50% of people have negative thoughts about the United Nations. Japanese people's views of the United Nations have remained generally negative since the summer of 2020, with 55% holding a negative view of the organization at the time.
In a few countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa, around one-fifth or more of the population did not express an opinion.
Trends in favorable opinions towards the United Nations
Favorability of the United Nations has generally remained stable in most countries surveyed in recent years, with a few exceptions.
In Hungary, government leaders have expressed dissatisfaction with international criticism of their internal affairs, with positive opinions dropping 11 points last year to 50%. And in the United States, favorable views fell slightly to 58%. Conservative Americans and adults over 50 are less likely to view the United Nations favorably than they were in 2022.
Although data is available for most countries from 2022, the center was unable to survey several middle-income countries from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But when he looks at the changes from 2019 to 2023, there has been a significant improvement in UN opinion in some of these countries. For example, in Nigeria, India, and Kenya, the share of respondents with favorable views of multilateral organizations has increased by double digit points since 2019.
The 17 point increase in India may be partially due to an increase in the proportion of people expressing some opinion. In 2023, only 12% did not respond to the question, compared to 44% in 2019.
What do people like about the United Nations?
Past surveys have shown that the public tends to rate the United Nations as promoting human rights, peace, and economic development, and that it is attentive to the needs of ordinary people and that it deals effectively with international issues. Few people answered that they were.
A 2020 survey by the center found that a median of 76% across 14 countries believed the UN promotes human rights, and a median of 51% said it effectively deals with international issues.
Different countries have different views on the United Nations
In some countries, people on the ideological left are more favorable toward the United Nations than those on the right. This pattern was also observed in his 2022.
The divide is particularly sharp in Israel, where left-wingers are nearly 50 points more likely to have a positive opinion of the United Nations than right-wingers. And left-leaning Israelis have become more favorable toward the United Nations over the past year, with 48% of leftists having a positive opinion of the United Nations this year, compared to 2022. 64% had the same opinion.
In the United States, liberals are much more likely than conservatives to view the United Nations positively (79% vs. 34%).
Only in Greece does this pattern reverse, with 57% of people on the ideological right viewing the United Nations favorably, compared to 41% of people on the left.
In a small number of countries, people with more education are more likely to view the United Nations favorably than people with less education. In Germany, for example, 78% of people with secondary education or above support the United Nations, compared to 64% of those with less than secondary education.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on September 17, 2021. Here are the questions, answers, and research methods used in the analysis.
