Global opinion of the United States, on balance, remains favorable. The median percentage offering a positive assessment of the U.S. is 60% among the 23 countries surveyed this spring by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. The U.S. receives high marks in Western Europe, where at least six-in-ten people in France, Spain, Germany and Britain rate the U.S. positively. Opinion of the U.S. is also consistently favorable across Eastern Europe, as well as in Japan, Kenya, Israel, Brazil and Mexico.

U.S. image continues to suffer in predominantly Muslim countries, with the notable exception of Indonesia, where a majority expresses positive views of the U.S. One-in-five or fewer in Egypt, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey view America favorably. Views of the U.S. in the Muslim world reflect, at least in part, opposition to the war in Afghanistan and U.S. efforts to fight terrorism. Moreover, few in predominantly Muslim countries say the U.S. takes a multilateral approach to foreign policy. Fewer than a quarter of people in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey say the U.S. takes the interests of countries like theirs into account when making foreign policy decisions. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.