Why 2016 Was a Bad Year for the World

According to the YouGov survey, people in every single country surveyed are more likely to say that 2016 was a good one for themselves and their family than a bad one. Filipinos in particular are the most likely to think 2016 had been good to them and their loved ones, at 75 percent (the lowest is France at 33 percent). Egyptians are the most likely to have experienced a bad year, at 32 percent.

People are less likely to think that 2016 has been good to their country, though. Those nations that believe on balance they’ve had a good year are all East Asian, Middle Eastern or North African. Europeans are all much more likely to think 2016 was a bad year for their country, as are people in the United States.

Malaysians and the French are the most likely to believe 2016 was a bad year for their country, at 69 percent and 67 percentrespectively. Malaysia was rocked by the revelations of widespread corruption coming out of the 1MDB scandal (including accusations against the Prime Minister), where France was beset by terror attacks as well as suffering a stagnant economy.

There is widespread consensus that, however good 2016 has been personally and nationally, it has been a bad year for the world as a whole. Of the 21 countries surveyed, in only two - Vietnam and the Philippines - did more people think 2016 was a good year for the world than a bad one. Again, the European nations surveyed are by far the most likely to think 2016 has been a bad year for the world, with at least 65 percent people in each country believing so.

As well as having some of the most negative views of 2016, the European nations surveyed also tend to have the most pessimistic expectations for 2017 as well. Whilst the seven European countries all have a net positive outlook in terms of prospects for themselves and their families, they are still lower than the scores from any other part of the world. They are all likely to have a more negative outlook for the future of their own countries, and are particularly pessimistic about how good 2017 is likely to be for the world.

While the other more advanced, more Western economies in the survey (USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore) all also tend to come towards the bottom of the rankings in terms of optimism for 2017, they are broadly set apart from the European nations in terms of their expectations for their families and the world.

By contrast, the East Asian, Middle Eastern and North African nations are almost universally optimistic about 2017, with huge net positive scores. With a score of -24, only Malaysia bucks this trend—Malaysians don't think that 2016's problems have been laid to bed, and they are the most pessimistic of all the nations surveyed about how good 2017 will be for their country.

Check out more about the survey at https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/12/30/global-survey-2016-has-been-bad-year-world