The poll queried more than 28,000 people in 27 countries around the world, asking them about 17 countries and whether they felt they had a negative or positive influence on the world today.
Iran was at the very bottom, with those polled rating it as having a malign influence by almost 4-to-1, with 59 percent giving Iran a negative rating and only 16 percent giving it a positive rating. As one of the accompanying tables shows, North Korea and Pakistan were rated only marginally better than Iran.
Those three countries—Iran, North Korea and Pakistan—were the only three countries to which the majority of those queried gave negative ratings.
The country with the lowest negative rating was Canada. Only 12 percent of those queried around the world thought Canada had a malign impact on the world.
The country with the highest positive rating was Germany at 62 percent. Interestingly, it is German policy to have very little role in the world outside Europe. The one non-European area where it has been active has been in criticizing the Islamic Republic and taking a leading role in imposing sanctions.
The poll was conducted for the BBC World Service by the polling firm GlobeScan working with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. The poll was taken in December and January.
Iran was viewed negatively in 25 of the 27 countries polled. Only in Pakistan, did a plurality of 41 percent view its influence as positive. In India, views were about evenly divided—28 percent negative, 27 percent positive. Otherwise, the Islamic Republic got a thumbs down around the world.
The attitude toward Iran improved most dramatically this past year in Turkey, but more Turks still think ill of Iran than positively. Iran’s positive rating among Turks rose a dramatic 23 points to 36 percent, while its negative rating fell nine points to 45 percent since the poll last year. The reasons for such a huge shift are unclear.
Iran was viewed most negatively—not surprisingly—by Americans, with 87 percent rating its influence as malign. What’s more, that was a huge jump of 18 points since the poll taken last year. But plenty of other countries rated Iran negatively by immense margins, including Germany at 85 percent, Italy 85 percent, France 82 percent, South Korea 81 percent, Britain 79 percent, Canada 79 percent, Philippines 79 percent, Australia 77 percent and Brazil 75 percent.
While the Chinese government is perhaps the most positively attuned government toward Iran, the Chinese people still view Iran negatively by a margin of 48 percent to 38 percent.
Iran has been the most negatively rated country in all of the annual polls of this series since Iran was first queried about in 2005—and it has been rated progressively more negative each year.
One interesting question is whether a poll of this nature has any impact on the government of the Islamic Republic. Figures in the opposition have pointed out how Iran is viewed negatively around the world in their criticisms of the Ahmadi-nejad Administration. But, in fact, Iran was viewed negatively long before President Ahmadi-nejad took office in 2005.
Most indications are that many senior officials of the regime are quite happy to be viewed negatively in the West, since the ideology of the regime paints the Islamic Republic as the great anti-Western bastion of the world.
The regime’s primarily concern would logically be opinion in the Islamic world. The poll was taken in only four majority-Muslim states—Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt. Iran was rated more negatively than positively in all those countries except Pakistan.
In Egypt, the sole Arab country where the poll was taken, Iran was viewed positively by 25 percent of the people and negatively by 32 percent. But 43 percent or almost half the population responded “don’t know,” “depends,” “neither” or some other middle ground posture that would suggest the Islamic Republic could make inroads with them.
One of the more interesting findings of the poll is that Americans no longer rate Israel overwhelmingly positive. The poll showed the American public almost evenly divided with 43 percent saying Israel has a positive influence on the world and 41 percent saying its influence is negative.