What the World worries about

• Global Ipsos study finds unemployment is the biggest worry of the world;

• Britain is the country most worried about immigration and extremism out of 25 countries around the world;

• French most likely to say things are going in wrong direction in their country;

• Turks are those most worried about terrorism - the highest level of worry about any specific issue; 

• For South Africans, financial and political corruption is the issue that causes the most concern, followed by unemployment and then crime/violence.

Johannesburg, 14th October 2016 – The new Ipsos study "What Worries the World" is an online survey of adults aged under 65 in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.  It probes the issues which most worry most populations and investigates whether people think things in their country are headed in the right direction. In our country, 500 South Africans who have online access were interviewed, aged 16 – 64 years. 

Right track or wrong direction?

It finds overall that people across all 25 countries are more likely to think things in their country are off on the wrong track (63%), than headed in the right direction (37%.)  Most pessimistic are the French, 88% of whom think things are going wrong, with only 12% feeling that things are going well. The most optimistic are countries which have seen recent sustained periods of economic growth; China, where 90% say things are headed in the right direction, Saudi Arabia (71%), and India (67%).

Britons are relatively positive about the direction the country is headed in, with 44% saying they think things are going in the right direction. This is slightly above the global average, and the most optimistic response out of the European countries, the US, Australia and Japan.  This is also a significant improvement on a low point in July when only 31% said the country was going in the right direction, immediately after the EU Referendum.

Looking at South Africa, the picture is not rosy, almost four-fifths (79%) of South Africans with online access believe that the country is heading down the wrong track.  From Ipsos' last Khayabus (a large-scale omnibus study), conducted across a representative sample of the country's total adult population, 53% believed we were going in the wrong direction.

Looking at these scores, Mari Harris, head of Public Affairs at Ipsos says "Although the online population are even more despondent about the direction of the country than the general population, the trend is going in the same direction – South Africans have moved from optimism to pessimism, especially over the last year or so.  We can see the effect of this despondency in the unrest in the country, both in terms of service delivery protests and the issues in higher education and the results of the recent local government elections. Trust in the government and in the president is at an all-time low."

Worries of the world

When it comes to which issues are most worrying to people around the world, the single biggest issue is unemployment, which is mentioned by 38% globally. This is a modest (2%) increase compared to last month, but over the longer term, concern about unemployment has been decreasing since 2010 when more than half across all countries said this worried them.  As can be seen below, the top five global issues are unemployment, financial and political corruption, poverty and social inequality, crime and violence and healthcare. 

Focussing on the BRICS countries, Brazil's number one worry is healthcare, with half of the Brazilian respondents mentioning this as an issue. In Russia, poverty and social inequality is the number one worry (57%). Like the online South Africans, India is most concerned about financial and political corruption (49%), and in China, the top worry was the moral decline of the country (43%).

South Africans, when asked about their concerns, mostly mentioned financial and political corruption (67%) as their top issue. This was followed by unemployment (58%) and crime and violence (53%). Poverty and social inequality were mentioned by 31% of respondents and Education mentioned by 23% (This survey was conducted between the dates of August 26th and September 9th -  prior to the current unrest at universities).  "Looking again at results from our Khayabus study, we see that the general South African population is more worried about unemployment, although the issue of corruption also looms very large in their list of worries", says Harris. 

In Britain, immigration is the number one worry, and this country has the highest reported level of worry about immigration of any country included in the study (42%). As the shape of the UK's future relationship with the EU is still subject to widespread debate and speculation, the subjects of immigration and control of borders remain high in public awareness – pushing worry about this issue higher than in other European countries like Germany (41%) and Sweden (33%), which are more directly affected by the refugee crisis resulting from the civil conflict in Syria and other countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Concern about terrorism is highest in Turkey (76%), and this is also the highest level of worry about any issue across all of the countries surveyed. Countries with recent or ongoing exposure to incidents of terror are among the most worried about terrorism; Israel (45%), France (55%) and Belgium (38%).

Healthcare, the fifth most frequently mentioned issue globally, is a significant concern in Hungary (where 59% mention it) and Brazil (50%). Healthcare is the second most frequently cited issue among Britons (34%) and has seen an increase of 7 percentage points month on month, possibly fuelled by an ongoing dispute between junior doctors and the government in this country.

Crime and violence is a big and growing concern in, Mexico (60% say this is a worry, up 19 percentage points month on month) and Argentina (now 56%, up 11 percentage points).  In Peru, crime and violence is the primary worry, with 74% saying this worries them - the highest level of concern about the issue among any country in the study.

China is most worried about climate change (21%) and threats against the environment (38%) out of all countries.

-ENDS-

Methodology:

• The survey is conducted monthly in 25 countries around the world via the Ipsos Online Panel system. The countries included are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States of America.

• An international sample of 18,014 adults aged 18-64 in Canada, Israel and the US, and aged 16-64 in all other countries, were interviewed between August 26th and September 9th 2016.

• Approximately 1000+ individuals participated on a country by country basis via the Ipsos Online Panel with the exception of Argentina, Belgium, Hungary, India, Israel, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Turkey, where each have a sample of approximately 500+.

• Weighting has been employed to balance demographics and ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population with online access - according to the most reliable country census and other data.

• A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size would have an estimated margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points for a sample of 1,000 and an estimated margin of error of +/- 4.5 percentage points for a 500 sample 19 times out of 20.

• In 16 of the 25 countries surveyed internet penetration is sufficiently high to think of the samples as representative of the wider population within the age ranges covered: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Great Britain and United States.

• Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey have lower levels of internet penetration and so these samples should not be considered nationally representative, and instead be considered to represent a more affluent, connected population.  These are still a vital social group to understand in these countries, representing an important and emerging middle class.