Pessimism is growing in Europe, and the South and East are optimistic about the future

World public opinion is going into the dark. Fewer and fewer countries are participating in global surveys. China has long refused, many countries in South America and Africa do not exist, and data on a number of countries, for example, Ukraine, is difficult to consider objective. This is no coincidence. A new world is being formed, in agony, attempts at manipulation and falsification. Nevertheless, the general trends have already manifested themselves – the zone of optimism has finally moved from the west to the south and east.

On average, two out of every five respondents (39%) worldwide expect that the coming year will be better than the outgoing one, and one in four (26%) holds the opposite opinion. 28% expect the year to be the same as the previous one. The figures look more optimistic than twelve months ago, although the positive trend is insignificant.

These are the general results of the global survey* "End of the Year" (End of the Year) of the international association of research agencies Gallup International conducted at the end of 2023 in 40 countries of the world, in Russia the study was conducted by Romir.

India (+47) is clearly positive, with high optimism indices traditionally recorded in Afghanistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Such an important player as Iran (+6) is also more optimistic. And Saudi Arabia (+82) has the highest level of optimism among the population.

In Russia, the optimism index was -9 percentage points. However, compared with previous measurements, the indicator has improved. Recall that in the pandemic years, it dropped to -13 points, which may have been a kind of reaction not only to the global lockdown, but also to the last attempt to establish globalization in the Western version. 

Europe has not left the zone of pessimism for many years. Negativist sentiments are especially strong in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Serbia, Bulgaria, Portugal, Poland, and Austria. 

Andrey Milekhin, President of Romir, Doctor of Sociology, comments: "The results of the latest Gallup International global survey show how a new world is being formed. The zone of optimism about the future is increasingly shifting to the global south and east, covering primarily the countries of the Islamic world. At the same time, Europe will be increasingly filled with feelings of anxiety and general pessimism. Russia, as before, finds itself in the middle – albeit slowly, but getting on the path of recovery, which is reflected in an increase in the level of hopes for a better future. And in general, this alignment on the world map seems to be similar to the truth, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to see the new in the old coordinates."

*In October-December 2023, more than 40,000 people in 40 countries were interviewed as part of the End of the Year project. In each country, surveys were conducted based on national or urban samples. It is not possible to verify the quality of primary information collection for a number of countries. In Russia, the Romir research holding interviewed 1,500 respondents based on a nationally representative sample.