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What do Asians think about the world?

ew Center survey reveals Asian attitudes about their own lives, their nations, the world, and the United States. New Asia Institute pages summarize findings on Asia.

About the Survey | Threats

The information below has been extracted from "What the World Thinks in 2002," a publication of the The Pew Global Attitudes Project. The report may be downloaded by clicking here. The precise questions and the full data compilation is available here. Both are in .pdf format which requires Adobe Acrobat. To get a free copy of Acrobat, click here.

This survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in collaboration with a number of survey organizations around the world. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright chaired the project. 38,000 people in 44 nations were surveyed. Surveys of 11,820 people were conducted 9 Asian nations. In presenting their findings, the Pew team groups Pakistan with Middle East/Conflict Area nations rather than with other Asian nations. The surveys were conducted between July and October, 2002. In all but one of the Asian nations, the survey was conducted face to face with adults over age 18. In Japan the survey was conducted by telephone. The last section of the report offers details about the research process.

The Threats

Greatest Danger to the World -- percent identifying this problem as the greatest danger. In China, it was not possible to ask about religious and ethnic hatred.

  AIDS &
Infectious
Diseases 		Religious
& Ethnic
Hatred 		Nuclear
Weapons 		Rich/Poor
Gap 		Pollution/
Environ-
ment
Bangladesh
35
41
42
37
30
China
39
N/A
26
58
70
India
34
45
39
46
21
Indonesia
35
64
20
50
27
Japan
19
38
68
19
55
Pakistan
27
41
54
43
14
Philippines
32
27
49
40
49
South Korea
24
28
30
43
73
Vietnam
80
23
34
17
44

For more information about the survey, contact the Pew Center:

The Pew Research Center for The People & The Press
1150 18th Street, NW
Suite 975
Washington, DC 20036

Telephone: (202) 293-3126
Fax: (202) 293-2569

Web: www.people-press.org

Published: Thursday, December 12, 2002

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