Americans view India more favourably than Pakistan in Gallup poll

Princeton (New Jersey, US), - India is viewed better than Pakistan as a country to visit by Americans.

Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey, which was released on Friday, said 66 percent of the Americans participating in the poll, preferred India, while only 23 percent viewed Pakistan favourably.

Canada topped the list, while Iran was in last position.

According to the Gallup survey, 90 percent of Americans viewed Canada favorably among 20 nations that figure prominently in the news or U.S. foreign policy.

Only 49 percent viewed Mexico favorably at a time its image has suffered from intensifying violence in the drug war.

Iran was seen favorably by only 10 percent of Americans in the poll after a year dominated by headlines over its nuclear program and crackdown on anti-government protesters. North Korea was next-to-last with only a 14 percent favorability rating.

Gallup found six other countries were viewed favorably by a majority of Americans: Britain (87 percent), Germany (80 percent), Japan (77 percent), Israel (67 percent), France (63 percent) and Egypt (58 percent).

Those nations with the lowest favorability ratings in the poll included: Afghanistan (18 percent), the Palestinian Authority (20 percent), Yemen (21 percent), Iraq (23 percent), Cuba (29 percent), and Saudi Arabia (35 percent).

Yemen was included for the first time in the survey.

Americans had mixed views about China, a growing economic rival, with 42 percent viewing it favorably and 53 percent unfavorably.

Russia, which saw its favorability rating in 2009 drop to 40 percent, rebounded in this year’s survey to 47 percent.

The results were based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,025 adult Americans, conducted from Feb. 1 to 3. The survey has a margin of error of four percentage points. (ANI)