People globally are generally pessimistic about the state of their country and the world while also expressing a "surprising level of optimism" about the direction of their own lives, a recent survey has found.
Nowhere in the world are people less optimistic about the state of the world than in Western Europe and the United States, with 63% and 65% respectively saying the world was headed in the wrong direction, according to a survey by Datapraxis and YouGov.
Only in Asia do more respondents think their country is heading more in the right direction than the wrong direction. In the west, people are feeling more negative about the state of their own country, led by Britain (62%), France (58%), Germany (53%) and the US (69%).
Climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the pandemic and rising living costs are among the most important challenges facing the world today. Global warming is ranked as a top three issue facing the world in every country except Egypt, the host of this year’s COP 27 UN climate conference.
“We shouldn't be surprised that so many people around the world cite climate change as the most important challenge facing the world—the climate crisis is inextricably linked to the turmoil we are witnessing worldwide," Yamide Dagnet, Open Society’s director of Climate Justice, said.
Overall, the survey tracked sentiment towards a number of policy options to deal with the war, global warming and the cost of living and energy crisis, which are aimed at helping address these challenges in the short, medium, and long term on various government levels.
Personal lives
When it comes to how people feel about their own lives, people across most parts of the world were more positive.
"Despite various challenges, respondents across the globe expressed a surprising level of optimism about whether things are 'going in the right direction' in their own lives," a press release about the survey read.
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People in Latin America are most positive about their personal lives (69%), while in Western Europe just 47% indicated feeling optimistic about the direction they were going in.
