Bruce Stokes

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.

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.

Outside its own borders, neither Russia nor its president, Vladimir Putin, receives much respect or support, with a median of only 30% across 39 nations surveyed seeing Russia favorably.

This first use of a nuclear weapon by any nation has long divided Americans and Japanese. Americans have consistently approved of this attack and have said it was justified. The Japanese have not. But opinions are changing: Americans are less and less supportive of their use of atomic weapons, and the Japanese are more and more opposed.

Those surveyed are generally disgruntled about the state of their economy, and many are also pessimistic about the financial prospects of the next generation.

While the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact has general public support in most of the countries involved, there are deep partisan divisions in some of these countries over the issue.

Most Greeks polled in 2014 didn’t express particularly warm views of the EU. And public sentiment showed that many in other European nations harbor negative stereotypes of Greeks.