A new Pew survey conducted over the phone between January and April on two sets of countries (13 NATO member states and a broader set that also included 12 non-NATO members states) this year found NATO is seen more favorably than not across most of the 13 member countries included in the survey: A median of 66% of adults have a positive view of the alliance. Opinions vary widely, however, from 81% favorability in Poland to 28% in Greece.
Favorable views of NATO have declined since 2024 in a few countries, including Turkey and Greece, where the organization is historically less well-regarded than it is in other member nations. However, positive views of NATO are up since last year in Canada and Germany.
Probably unsurprisingly, opinions of NATO are divided along ideological lines. In four member nations surveyed–Canada, Hungary, the United Kingdom and the United States–people who place themselves on the ideological left are more likely than those on the right to see NATO favorably. In Greece and Sweden, by contrast, the organization gets higher ratings from the right than the left.
Across the broader set of 25 countries, few people express confidence in Putin’s leadership on the world stage. A median of 15% have confidence in him to do the right thing regarding world affairs, while a median of 84% do not.
Confidence in Putin has remained low since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
People who place themselves on the ideological right have become more confident in Putin in six countries since last year, including Italy (+13), Hungary (+10), Brazil (+9), and the U.S. (+6).
In many countries, confidence in Putin is related to confidence in U.S. President Donald Trump. In Australia, Canada and most of the European countries surveyed, people who have confidence in Trump are also more likely to have confidence in Putin.
Russia continues to be seen in a mostly negative light by people in the 25 countries surveyed. While overall favorability of Russia remains low, an increasing share of the public in five countries–Greece, Hungary, Italy and Turkey–have a positive view of the country.
Greeks and Italians, for example, are 10 points more likely to have a favorable opinion of Russia this year than in 2024, while in Hungary and Italy, views have become especially more positive among people on the ideological right and those who support their nation’s right-wing populist parties.
People across most of the countries surveyed see the U.S. more favorably than Russia, even as positive opinion of the U.S. has dipped over the past year.
Confidence in Zelensky is mixed across the 25 nations surveyed: A median of 45% have confidence in him to do the right thing regarding world affairs, while an identical median share do not. While confidence in Zelensky decreased in some countries between 2023 and 2024, it has increased in some others, for instance in Germany where now 64% of Germans have confidence in Zelensky today, up from 54% in 2024.
Pew also found that in many European countries supporters of right-wing populist parties are less likely than non-supporters to express confidence in Zelensky, with confidence in the Ukrainian president related to confidence in the U.S. president. Across most of the 25 countries surveyed, people with confidence in Trump are less likely to express confidence in Zelensky.
