WIN/Gallup International, the leading global association in market research and polling, has revealed that respondents of its global annual poll regard corruption as the most important problem facing the world today.
Highlights
- 21% of respondents globally identified corruption as the most important problem facing the world today – the highest response rate amongst the 17 categories;
- Economic problems in second place globally at 14%;
- Poverty (the gap between rich and poor) in third place globally at 12%;
- Biggest regional concerns: Asia (26%),Americas(19%) and MENA (15%) said corruption; Western Europe (24%) and Eastern Europe (20%) said poverty;Africasaid economic problems (21%)
- The data was collected as part of WIN/Gallup International’s Annual 2013 poll that interviewed 66,806 people in 65 countries.
- Biggest concerns in Bulgaria: poverty/the gap between rich and poor – 23%, economic problems – 17%, unemployment – 15%,corruption – 9%, wars and conflicts – 7% and crime – 5%.
Corruption wins
Corruption was the common theme for the 2013 WIN/Gallup International Annual survey, with 21% of respondents globally selecting it as the world’s most important problem.Asiahad the highest share of responses to the corruption category (26%) of any region. Within the Asia region, thePhilippines(50%) andIndonesia(40%) recorded significantly higher response rates to this question than any other country worldwide in the survey, whereasAustralia(4%) andJapan(2%) saw corruption as a minor problem.
TheAmericas(19%) and Africa (18%) also had high response rates for corruption whereas results fromWestern Europewere much lower – corruption gained only 8% of the share of responses across the region. Indeed, countries in Western Europe generally recorded only a single digit share, as in theUK(8%),Germany(6%) andFrance(4%).
Economic problems were identified as the world’s second most important problem. Africa (21%) ranked this as the number one issue, withKenya(27%) coming out well above the regional average. Africa was followed by theAmericas(16%), while the global average was 14%. The UK (17%) deemed the category as the most important problem, and amongst the other Western European countries to focus on it were Netherlands (12%), Germany (10%), Spain (10%) and Austria (9%). 26% of US respondents selected economic problems, making it the number one issue there.Malaysia(47%) andGreece(43%) were the countries which recorded the highest responses in the economic problems category globally.
It gets personal
Poverty, more specifically the gap between rich and poor, is deemed the third biggest problem globally with 12%. It was the number one concern from survey participants in Western European (24%). Some countries in this region displayed extremely high responses in this category, includingGermany(34%),Austria(32%),Spain(27%) andFrance(25%), all of which greatly exceeded the global average of 12%. TheUK, at 16%, was lower than some of its European peers but still ranked poverty as the second most important issue facing the world. Indeed, the contrast with some non-European countries is stark:Malaysia(1%),Thailand(3%) andIndonesia(5%) were some of the countries that had single digit responses.
Further to the theme of financial hardship, unemployment ranked fourth globally (10%) in the list of important problems. The share of responses in Europe (14%) was surpassed only byAfrica(19%). Results in theAmericasregion paint a split picture, with theUS(11%) andBrazil(8%) recognising unemployment as a problem whereasArgentina(2%) attached far less importance to it. The results from countries in theAmericascontrast sharply to those from other regions -Italysees unemployment as the biggest problem at 34% as doBosnia(32%) andSouth Africa(30%).
Jean-Marc Leger, President of WIN/Gallup International Association, said: “2013 saw continued economic hardship across the globe, so it is unsurprising that issues such as poverty and unemployment struck a chord with respondents to WIN/Gallup International’s latest poll. It is, however, fascinating to see that corruption is perceived as the biggest problem globally. This suggests that people are beginning to become frustrated with their governments as the tough economic outlook continues and merely reflects the ongoing investigations into corruption such as those currently being undertaken by the European Commission which estimates that corruption across Europe costs the economy at least €120bn.”
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Methodology
The End of Year Survey is an annual tradition initiated by and designed under the chairmanship of Dr. George Gallup in 1977. It has been conducted every year since then. This year it was carried out by Members of WIN/Gallup International in 65countries around the world.
Sample Size and Mode of Field Work
A total of 66,806 persons were interviewed globally representing 77% of the global population. In each of the 65 countries a national probability sample of around 1,000 men and women was interviewed either face to face (34 countries), via telephone (10 countries); or online (21 countries). The field work was conducted between October 1st and December 9th 2013. In general, the margin of error for survey of this kind is at the 95% confidence level for 2780 is +/- 1.86%. While for a sample size of 300 it is +/- 5.66%
The global average has been computed according to the share of the covered adult population of the surveyed countries.
About the WIN/Gallup International survey:
WIN/Gallup Internationalis the leading association in market research and polling and is made up of the77largest independent market research and polling firms in their respective countries with combined revenue of over€500million and covering95%of the world’s market.
For more than 60 years WIN/Gallup International Members have demonstrated their expert ability to conduct multi-country surveys on a comparable basis and deliver the highest quality. Their Members are leading national institutes with a profound local knowledge of research methods and techniques, statistical sources, customs and culture differences of its own country and carefully selected by the Association Board. With only one Member agency per country, Members work together on a daily basis to share knowledge, new research techniques and tools, as well as to provide the most appropriate solutions to international research projects and service our clients to the best of our abilities.
The accumulated expertise of the Association is formidable – they have internationally renowned experts in public opinion, Third World issues, advertising, and media research as well as in commercial fields such as IT/telecommunications, healthcare, retail, economics, corporate research and so on. Members are at the leading edge of technical and methodological developments, which have impacted on not only the research industry but also the whole commercial world.
Disclaimer:Gallup International Association or its members are not related to Gallup Inc., headquartered in Washington D.C which is no longer a member of Gallup International Association. Gallup International Association does not accept responsibility for opinion polling other than its own. We require that our surveys be credited fully as Gallup International (not Gallup or Gallup Poll). For further details see website: www.wingia.com