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A remarkable number of Europeans believe the financial situation for average people in their country has not improved over the past two decades. In Greece, Italy and Spain – three southern European nations hit hard by the financial crisis – large majorities say average people are worse off than they were 20 years ago. And roughly half or more share this view in France and the UK. Two notable exceptions are Poland and Sweden, where about two-in-three believe people are generally better off financially.
We asked respondents across the European continent whether they agree with the statement, “Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others.” While there are exceptions, Central and Eastern Europeans overall are more inclined to say their culture is superior. The eight countries where this attitude is most prevalent are all geographically in the East: Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Bulgaria, Russia, Bosnia, Romania and Serbia.
People in Central and Eastern Europe also are more likely than Western Europeans to say being born in their country and having family background there are important to truly share the national identity.
The United States has a religious makeup that’s broadly similar to that of many Western European countries. Most people on both sides of the Atlantic say they are Christian, for example. At the same time, substantial shares in the U.S. and Europe say they are religiously unaffiliated: Roughly a quarter of the American adult population identify as “nones,” similar to the shares in Germany, the United Kingdom and other Western European countries.
At that point, however, the similarities end: U.S. adults – both Christian and unaffiliated – are considerably more religious than their European counterparts by a variety of other measures. For instance, about two-thirds of U.S. Christians pray daily (68%), compared with a median of just 18% of Christians across 15 surveyed countries in Europe.
When looking at all adults, Americans also are much more likely than Western Europeans to believe in God as described in the Bible. More than half of Americans (56%) say this is the case. That’s about twice the regional median in Western Europe (27%).
There are glaring differences between Europe and the United States when it comes to foreign language education. A median of 92% of European primary and secondary students are learning a foreign language in school, compared with just 20% of K-12 students in the U.S.
Regardless of populist sentiments, people in Western Europe tend to favor parties that reflect their own ideological orientation. With regard to policy, too, ideology continues to matter. While populist attitudes span the ideological spectrum in Western Europe, populist political parties are relatively unpopular in the region.
The majority of Europe’s Christians are non-practicing, but they differ from religiously unaffiliated people in their views on God, attitudes toward Muslims and immigrants, and opinions about religion’s role in society.
In Western Europe, public views of the news media are divided by populist leanings – more than left-right political positions. Across eight countries, those who hold populist views value and trust the news media less, and they also give the media lower marks for coverage of major issues, such as immigration, the economy and crime.
Three scenarios illustrate what the Muslim population could look like in Europe in 2050. Even with no new migration, Muslims are projected to increase as a share of Europe’s population.
Concentrated in Europe, Orthodox Christians have declined as a percentage of the global population. Today, just 12% of Christians around the world are Orthodox. Yet, the Ethiopian Orthodox community is highly observant and growing. Read key takeaways from the report.
Syrians filed more than twice as many asylum applications as any other origin group during Europe’s record migration surge in 2015 and 2016. In all, more than half a million asylum seekers from Syria during the 2015-16 surge had received permission to stay in Europe, at least temporarily, as of Dec. 31, 2016.
Ahead of the German election, most Germans are satisfied with the state of the economy and are broadly positive toward the political establishment that has led the nation through the post-World War II era.
About a million people (1.1 million) who sought asylum in Europe in 2015 and 2016 still did not know by Dec. 31, 2016, whether they would be allowed to stay. Those in limbo make up about half (52%) of the 2.2 million people who applied for asylum during one of the largest refugee waves ever to arrive to the European Union, Norway and Switzerland.
People around the globe identify ISIS and climate change as the leading threats to national security. ISIS is named as the top threat in a total of 18 countries surveyed – mostly concentrated in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States. In 13 countries, mostly in Latin America and Africa, publics identify global climate change as the topmost threat.
Also, cyberattacks from other countries and the condition of the global economy are named as major threats by global medians of 51% each.
While few citizens on the European continent are eager to see their own country depart the EU, many want the chance to have their voice heard through their own referendum on EU membership. Moreover, frustrations with Brussels remain when it comes to economic management and dealing with the refugee issue.
Most middle classes in Western European countries we analyzed would shrink if measured by a standard of U.S. income. For example, 67% of Italians are middle class compared with other Italians, but only 44% are middle class by U.S. standards.
