PEOPLE in the US, Britain and India see war and terrorism as the top global challenges while Chinese are more worried about climate change, according to a poll commissioned by King’s College London.
In an Ipsos MORI survey conducted in eight countries – Australia, Brazil, China, Britain, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the US – for the London university, 62 per cent of the Americans polled chose war and terrorism as a top issue the world needed to address.
In China, only 17 per cent of respondents cited the same issue, called national security. Asked what the top two or three challenges were for the world today, the Chinese named global warming and climate change, followed closely by pollution.
War and terrorism ranked highest also in Britain and India, as well as Saudi Arabia. People polled in South Africa and Brazil chose it the least.
The economy was the overwhelming choice as a national challenge for Americans and British. Eighty-two per cent of Americans polled chose the economy as one of the top issues facing their government while 74 per cent of Britons picked it.
The Chinese surveyed were most worried about overpopulation and ageing as well as pollution.
Australians and the British were more likely to cite cancer as one of the greatest challenges facing their country, with one in four people polled citing it as an important issue.
South Africa had the highest percentage of people who selected AIDS as a big challenge both globally, at 37 per cent, and at a national level, at 63 per cent.
Ipsos-MORI polled 7,055 people between 16 and 64 years across the eight countries in September.
