America’s Most (and Least) Favorite Countries

Canada, we love you. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Forget March Madness.

Gallup’s annual World Affairs poll measuring Americans’ views of foreign countries is the tournament we’re watching most closely.

And the results are in.

No surprise — our neighbor up north came in first place, making Canada our most-liked country in the world. Ninety-two percent of U.S. residents viewed Canada favorably in the annual Gallup poll, which surveys Americans’ feelings toward 22 countries around the world.

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Canada tops the Gallup poll list of Americans’ most-liked countries. (Photo: Thinkstock)

At the other end of the spectrum is controversial North Korea, getting just nine percent of the votes, no doubt due in large part to everyone’s favorite dictator Kim Jong-Un. This is the second year that North Korea has come in worst. Last year, North Korea’s lowest-ranking score ended Iran’s nine-year run as the most-hated country. Iran got an 11-percent rating this year.

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North Korea: the most-hated country. (Photo: Thinkstock)

What falls in the middle is what makes the poll even more interesting: those annual tussles between the U.K. and France, Russia and Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan. Who will it be?

This year, the U.K. beat out France again, with a 90-percent score. But it’s noteworthy that — despite the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in January — France reached its highest approval level (82 percent) since 1991. In fact, Americans’ views of France have been on the upswing since 2003, when the two countries were at odds over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. That year, France received a paltry score of just 34 percent.

Russia’s standing, on the other hand, plummeted – down 10 points – while Cuba shot up eight points over last year. Now, 43 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Cuba.

Interestingly, Americans feel slightly better about Iraq (15 percent) than Syria (14 percent) and Afghanistan (14 percent).

Here, all the results of the annual Gallup poll:

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