Gallup Poll Reveals Americans' Most, Least Favorite Countries

Patrick Clarke
by Patrick Clarke
Last updated: 12:58 PM ET, Mon March 23, 2015

Image courtesy of Thinkstock/art12321

A majority of Americans tend to get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside whenever they think of Canada, their neighbors to the north.

North Korea? Not so much.

That's according to Gallup's World Affairs survey, conducted last month designed to measure Americans' view of foreign countries. The result is a breakdown of 22 nations into four separate groups: very favorable; favorable; mixed; and very unfavorable.

In 2015, Americans have a very favorable view of Canada (92 percent), Great Britain (90 percent), France (82 percent), Germany (81 percent), Japan (80 percent), India (71 percent) and Israel (70 percent).

France is arguably the most notable country in that group, as Gallup's Jay Loschky and Rebecca Riffkin point out:

"At 82 percent in 2015, American favorability toward France has reached its highest level since this question was first asked in 1991...Americans' views of their nation's oldest ally have been steadily on the mend since the two countries had a falling out in 2003 over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, when only 34 percent rated France favorably."

Jordan (57 percent), Mexico (55 percent), Ukraine (52 percent), and Egypt (49 percent) are among the countries that Americans view favorably in 2015, while U.S. citizens currently have mixed feelings when it comes to Cuba, China, and Saudi Arabia.

All three of those aforementioned countries scored more unfavorable percentage points than favorable percentage points, thus landing them in the mixed category.

Despite that fact, Cuba has seen its favorable score rise eight points since last year, when President Obama originally announced plans for eased travel restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba.

On the other end of the spectrum, Americans hold very unfavorable views of North Korea (nine percent), Iran (11 percent), Afghanistan (14 percent), Syria (14 percent), Iraq (15 percent), Pakistan (15 percent), the Palestinian Authority (17 percent), and Russia (24 percent).

Notably, Russia's favorable score plummeted 10 points from 2014.

America's unfriendly views of a majority of those countries in the very unfavorable group is undoubtedly tied to recent conflicts in the Middle East.


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Patrick Clarke

Patrick Clarke

Senior Editor

A Maryland native and wanderer who has lived across the U.S. from North Carolina to SoCal, Patrick Clarke graduated from Towson University with a B.S. in journalism. He previously worked for Bleacher

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