Asia & the Pacific

The roughly 47% of the population today who were born under the one-child policy lived through a very different China than those born before.

The regulation of abortion may vary widely from country to country, but nearly all nations – 96% – allow women to terminate their pregnancies in order to save their lives.

Most people in China say they are better off financially than they were five years ago. At the same time, they're worried about corrupt officials, air and water pollution, crime and economic inequality.

The urgency expressed by Pope Francis on global poverty and inequality is grounded in harsh reality. 4.4 billion people – 71% of the global population of 6.2 billion – lived on $10 or less per day in 2011, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the most recently available data.

One year after history-making political change swept the country, Indians’ fervor for their leader Narendra Modi has not abated. A new poll in India shows the public’s views of the country’s direction and the economy are on the rise.

Indians give high marks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his appeal is a driving force behind their positive mood. Indians approve of the way Modi is handling a variety of issues, such as access to clean toilets, unemployment and terrorism.

Americans see a number of economic threats from China, but they are also worried about cyberattacks, Bejing's human rights record, China's impact on the environment and its growing military strength.

Despite historical and territorial frictions, people in Asia-Pacific countries tend to view their neighbors in a positive light. But they express limited confidence in the region's most prominent national leaders.