Half of Romanians estimate that the USA has the strongest army worldwide, while 28.8% believe China does. Regarding Russia, in 2021, one third of Romanians considered this country to have the strongest army, while the latest survey by INSCOP, issued on Thursday, shows that 14.3% hold this belief.
“The generic assessment of the world’s main economic, military and value power landmarks reveals a good knowledge of these on the part of Romanians, who identify the USA as the principal military power, followed by China and Russia, the last switching positions compared with the previous survey on the matter, made in June 2021.
Romanians point to China as the main economic power, but on a decreasing trend compared with 2021, the difference between China and the US dropping significantly from 17 percentage points registered in 2021 to less than 4, in 2024.
The war in Ukraine seems to have affected Russia’s image of a great military power, while China’s appearance of large economic strength may have been affected by the economic consequences of the pandemic.
The European Union and the USA are seen by far as the countries/regions where people’s rights and freedoms are best respected”, emphasized Remus Stefureac, director of INSCOP.
On China – compared with Russia and the USA
The strongest army worldwide
- 50.5% of Romanians believe the USA have the strongest military worldwide (39.7%, according to the INSCOP survey of June 2021)
- 28.8% mentioned China (16.4% in 2021)
- 14.3% mentioned Russia (33.5% in 2021), while 0.9% mentioned other countries.
- The share of non-responses is 5.5%.
Those who believe the USA have the strongest military worldwide are: (to a larger extent than the average) men, people aged over 60, people with higher education, white-collar workers, higher income workers, private employees.
China is seen as the country with the strongest military in the world, especially by low-income people and state employees.
The strongest economy worldwide
According to 35.5% of respondents, China has the strongest economy worldwide (41.5%, according to the INSCOP survey of June 2021)
- 31.7% believe the USA have the strongest economy worldwide (24.1% in 2021)
- 14.8% mentioned Japan (14% in 2021)
- 12.6% mentioned Germany (14.1% in 2021)
- 0.8% mentioned another country.
- The share of non-responses is 4.7%.
China is seen as the country with the strongest economy in the world, especially by people with higher education, white-collar workers, residents of the Bucharest-Ilfov and West regions, and private employees.
The EU is where people’s rights and freedoms are best respected
When asked about which country or region best respects people’s rights and freedoms:
- 39.2% of respondents point to the European Union (37.4%, according to the INSCOP survey of June 2021)
- 38% mention the USA (39.2% in 2021)
- 8.2% mention China (4.1% in 2021)
- only 2.1% mention Russia (4.3% in 2021).
- 5.6% mentioned another country, while 6.8% did not know or respond.
Those who believe that the European Union is where people’s rights and freedoms are best respected: (to a larger extent than the average) are men, youths aged under 30, people with higher education, white-collar workers, residents of Bucharest and large urban areas, workers with higher revenues.
People over the age of 60, passive-inactive people, small town or rural residents believe to a higher extent than the average that people’s rights and freedoms are best respected in the USA.
The opinion poll was carried out by INSCOP Research at the request of press agency News.ro. The data was collected between February 22 and 29, through the CATI method (telephone interviews), through questionnaires. The volume of the simple, stratified sample is 1,100 people, representative of the significant socio-demographic categories (sex, age, occupation) for the Romanian non-institutionalized population, aged 18 and over.
The maximum allowable error of the data is ± 2,95 %, for a confidence interval of 95%.
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