Notwithstanding fast-paced emergence of China and other major economies over the past decade, people in countries around the world continue to view the United States as the top global economic power.
According to Pew Research Center, people across 38 nations it polled, a median of 42% say the U.S. is the world’s leading economy, while 32% name China.
A survey of public in countries of Latin America, as well as most in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, publics tend to believe the U.S. is the top economy.
In the United States, 51%-35% margin, Americans name their own country rather than China.
However, in seven of the 10 European Union nations in the study, China is considered the leading economic power (it is tied with the U.S. for the top spot in Italy).
The survey finds that a plurality in Russia also holds this view. And China leads the U.S. by a two-to-one margin in Australia – a longtime U.S. ally, but also a country whose top trading partner, by far, is China.
The Pew Research Center notes that over the past year, perceptions of relative U.S. economic power have declined in many of America’s key trading partners and allies.
“The trend can be seen in several European countries, where views about the economic balance of power have fluctuated in recent years. Following the onset of the financial crisis nearly a decade ago, Europeans increasingly named China, rather than the U.S., as the world’s leading economic power. But in recent years, as the American economy slowly recovered, the pendulum began to swing back in the direction of the U.S.”
The pattern has reversed itself again this year, and in countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, China is once more seen as occupying the top spot. But these shifts are not limited to Europe; perceptions have also changed significantly in countries such as Canada, Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, the Pew findings say.
