America’s Global Reputation Is Having a Rough Year

For generations, the United States’ reputation abroad was fairly high with much of the world. That has changed over the last couple of years. According to news reports, much of the world is no longer a big fan.

In our latest round of research-on-research, we asked US consumers whether they thought the US’s reputation in the eyes of other countries has improved or worsened in the last year.

Let’s dive into what they said:

Overall

A large majority (61%) of US consumers believe the United States’ image abroad has worsened over the past year. By comparison, 17% say the country’s image has improved.

Gender

A look at the data by gender shows that more than 55% of both males and females say the United States’ image abroad has worsened from a year ago. Only 15% of females and 22% of males believe the image has improved.

Age

Segmenting the data by age shows that 70% of consumers aged 18-24 feel that the United States’ international reputation has worsened in the last year. For the other age groups, we see that the share of consumers who believe the reputation has worsened increases with age, starting at 52% for those aged 25-34 and rising to 64% for those aged 65+.

Of those who believe it has improved, the amount is fairly steady across the 25-65+ age groups but is up to 8 points lower for those aged 18-24.

Income

Nearly six in ten consumers across all income levels believe the United States’ image has worsened compared with a year ago. But consumers with incomes of $100,000+ are 6 to 12 points more likely to believe that the United States’ image has improved.

Political Affiliation

Unsurprisingly, a consumer’s political affiliation has a significant impact on their view of the United States’ international reputation. 79% of Democrats say the United States’ reputation has worsened, compared to only 37% of Republicans, a 42-point difference.

Conversely, 37% of Republicans say the image of the United States has improved over the last year, compared to just 7% of Democrats, a 30-point difference.

Ethnicity

We found that 60% or more of consumers across all ethnicities believe the United States’ image abroad has worsened over the past year. Among ethnicities, there is up to a 10-point difference, the largest being between Asians (70%) and Caucasians (60%).

Of consumers who feel that the United States’ reputation has improved, the gap is much smaller. Caucasians have the highest percentage at 19%, while Asians have the lowest at 13%, a difference of only 6 points.

Panel

Aside from political affiliation, panel sources show some of the largest differences in consumer opinions. Of those who believe that the United States’ reputation has worsened, there is a 24-point gap between Panel F and Panel L. Panels B, J, and S are all within 5 points of each other.

We see similar gaps across panels among consumers who believe that the US’ reputation has improved. There is a 13-point gap between Panels J and B (25%) and Panel F (12%). Panels L and S are in the middle, with a 6- to 7-point gap between the two poles of opinion.  

These differences, especially between panel sources, reinforce the need to strategically blend sample for your quantitative studies. Want to learn how it can be implemented on your next study? Click the button below.