Name: In many nations, younger adults have more positive views of the UN than older adults
Creator: Pew Research Center
Published: 2026-08-27
License: https://www.pewresearch.org/terms-and-conditions/

The United Nations logo at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)

Ahead of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, which opens Sept. 8, people across 37 countries view the UN more favorably than unfavorably. However, views in some countries have turned more negative in recent years.

A median of 55% have a favorable opinion of the UN, according to a spring Pew Research Center survey. A median of 37% have an unfavorable opinion.

About half of adults or more in Canada, the United States and most European countries surveyed have a positive view of the UN. Opinions are also generally more favorable than unfavorable across 12 Asia-Pacific nations. In India, favorable views are about twice as common as unfavorable views, though 41% do not offer an opinion.

People in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Colombia, Peru and Brazil also see the UN in a more favorable than unfavorable light.

Opinions are more mixed in Spain, Mexico, Chile and Argentina.

People view the UN more unfavorably than favorably in Pakistan, Greece, Japan, Turkey, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Israel.

Israelis have the most negative opinion of the UN in the survey: 79% see the organization unfavorably. But there are significant differences by ethnicity, with Israeli Jews reporting much more negative views than Israeli Arabs (87% vs. 50% unfavorable).

About this research

This Pew Research Center analysis looks at views of the United Nations in 37 countries.

Why did we do this?

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. This analysis builds on our previous work on global views of the UN.

Learn more about Pew Research Center and our international surveys.

How did we do this?

We surveyed 45,658 people across 37 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Interviews were conducted Feb. 8-May 13, 2026. We designed the surveys so we could talk about the views of the adult population in each country. Here are the survey questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.

Views of the UN over time

Views of the UN have become more negative in 10 countries since we last asked this question. For example, 80% of Nigerians had a favorable view of the UN in 2025, compared with 63% in 2026. And the share of Filipinos with a favorable view decreased by 16 percentage points between 2024 and 2026.

In South Korea, the share of adults with a favorable view of the organization in 2026 is the lowest we have measured since our surveys began there in 2007. In the U.S., the share has decreased by 3 points since 2025.

In some countries, the share with a favorable opinion has not shifted much over the past year but is down from relatively favorable ratings in 2020 or 2021 – during the COVID-19 pandemic. In France, for example, 51% of adults today view the UN positively, down from 63% in 2021. We also observed this in the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as in Singapore, where our favorability data only goes back to 2021.

Views of the UN improved in only one country surveyed: Sri Lanka. About two-thirds of Sri Lankans (66%) now view the UN favorably, up from 58% when we last surveyed there in 2024.

Views by age

In many places, young adults view the UN more favorably than older people do. This is a consistent pattern we have observed in previous surveys. For example, 76% of Italians ages 18 to 34 have a favorable view of the UN, compared with 53% of those ages 50 and older.

Even in Israel and the West Bank and East Jerusalem – where we measure very unfavorable opinions of the UN – young people have more positive views of the organization than older adults do.

Views by ideology

In some countries, people on the ideological left tend to feel more favorably toward the UN than those on the ideological right. The divide is consistently wide in the U.S., where 76% of liberals and 35% of conservatives currently express a favorable view.

There are similar gaps between people on the left and right in Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Country	18-34	35-49	50+	Youngest-oldest diff
Italy	76	63	53	23
Peru	60	42	38	22
Hungary	73	64	52	21
Mexico	57	46	38	19
Sri Lanka	74	68	56	18
Malaysia	66	47	50	16
Singapore	65	59	49	16
France	60	56	44	16
India	46	42	30	16
Greece	55	41	40	15
Brazil	54	48	39	15
Colombia	61	57	47	14
Netherlands	70	57	57	13
Germany	74	63	63	11
Chile	46	35	35	11
W. Bank/E. Jerusalem	25	15	15	10
South Africa	51	53	42	9
Sweden	77	79	70	7
Australia	60	51	54	6
U.S.	58	55	52	6
Israel	20	21	14	6

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