Two-in-five Britons expect life in their country and the world to be worse ten years from now.

A new three-country Angus Reid Public Opinion poll finds that people in Canada provide a positive review to the decade that is about to end, while those in the United States are more optimistic about the next ten years.

The online survey of representative national samples also finds that Britons are more concerned about religious extremism becoming an important challenge for the world than their counterparts in the other two countries.

The Past Decade

More than a third of Canadians say their own standard of living is better now than it was ten years ago, a view shared by 29 per cent of Britons and 23 per cent of Americans. In fact, 44 per cent of Americans say their standard of living decreased in the past decade.

While a majority of Canadians (55%) claim that life in their country is about the same as it was a decade ago, sizeable majorities of Americans (65%) and Britons (61%) report a decline.

A similar situation ensues when assessing each country’s position in the world. While two thirds of Americans (66%) and Britons (68%) say this particular indicator has worsened, just 37 per cent of Canadians concur. All three countries agreed (61% in the U.S., 64% in Britain and 66% in Canada) that the word is worse now than ten years ago.

The Next Decade

Americans (45%) are more optimistic about their own standard of living improving in the next decade than Canadians (42%) and Britons (35%). When it comes to life in each country, Britons are more pessimistic (39%) than Americans (28%) and Canadians (21%).

People in the United States are also more likely to expect their country to gain prominence in the world over the next ten years (29%) than Canadians (23%) and Britons (16%). And while one-in-four Americans (24%) foresee the world becoming a better place in the next decade, considerably fewer Canadians (16%) and Britons (15%) concur.

Challenges for the Next Decade

Respondents in the three countries gave very different answers when they pondered the biggest issue facing the world over the next ten years.

Three-in-ten Canadians (29%) cited global warming, followed by religious extremism (18%), the economy (16%), and health care and disease (14%)

For Americans, the economy is clearly the biggest challenge (34%), with global warming a distant second (17%).

Britons are almost evenly divided between global warming (26%) and religious extremism (25%), with the economy a close third (22%).

Event of the Decade

At least two-in-five respondents in the three countries (47% in Canada, 46% in Britain and 40% in the U.S.) say that the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were the most newsworthy event in the world in the past decade.

While Canadians (19%) and Britons (13%) pick the election of Barack Obama as president, only 10 per cent of Americans concur. In fact, 22 per cent of Americans cite the global financial crisis of 2008 as the most newsworthy event, a considerably higher proportion than Canadians (16%) and Britons (11%).

The Future

While one third of Britons (33%) predict space tourism becoming a reality in the next 10 years, Canadians (27%) and Americans (25%) are slightly more skeptical. Almost half of Americans (46%) foresee retina scans being used instead of credit cards or identity cards in the next decade, a view shared by majorities in Canada (58%) and Britain (59%).

On international affairs, less than one-in-five respondents in all three countries believe Israel and the Palestinians will reach a definite peace agreement in the next ten years, and a similar proportion foresees China having free and fair elections. One-in-four Britons and Americans, and one-in-three Canadians, predict that Cuba will abandon communism in the next decade.

Most respondents in the three countries (54% in the U.S., 56% in Canada and 58% in Britain) think a U.S.-backed military intervention in Iran is likely to happen over the next ten years, while less than two-in-five foresee a similar scenario in North Korea.

At least half of respondents in the three countries believe Vladimir Putin will be directly involved in the Government of Russia ten years from now.

Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)

CONTACT:

Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Affairs
+604 647 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com