A new India global opinion survey shows striking differences in how the country is viewed worldwide. Sri Lanka records the strongest favourable opinion, while the UK, Kenya and Germany also show strong goodwill. Pakistan stands at the opposite end, giving India its lowest rating among the 36 countries surveyed.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka emerged as the most India-friendly country in Pew Research Center’s Spring 2026 Global Attitudes Survey, with 79% of adults expressing a favourable opinion of India. The survey covered 42,092 people across 36 countries between February 9 and May 13, 2026. Across all countries surveyed, a median of 45% viewed India favourably, compared with 41% who held an unfavourable opinion.
Sri Lanka’s rating is particularly notable because public opinion has improved sharply. Favourable views of India increased by 14 percentage points compared with 2024, suggesting a significant improvement in India’s image among Sri Lankan respondents.
UK
The UK recorded one of the strongest ratings for India, with 71% of adults expressing a favourable view. Kenya matched Britain at 71%, making the two countries India’s strongest supporters outside Sri Lanka in the survey.
India’s ratings have also improved considerably in Britain. Pew reported that favourable views rose by 11 percentage points compared with 2025. The result places the UK well above the overall global median and highlights a notable rise in public goodwill toward India.
Germany
Germany recorded 63% favourable views of India, making it another major European country where positive opinion clearly outweighs negative sentiment. Germany has also recorded one of the strongest longer-term improvements in perceptions of India.
In 2023, 47% of Germans held a favourable view of India. That figure increased to 63% in 2026. Israel followed with 60%, while Italy stood at 56%. Sweden, Japan and Thailand each recorded 55% favourable ratings, showing that positive views extend across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Pakistan
Pakistan recorded just 7% favourable views of India, the lowest rating among all 36 countries included in the survey. The gap between Sri Lanka’s 79% and Pakistan’s 7% demonstrates how dramatically public perceptions of India can differ even among neighbouring South Asian countries.
India also received weak ratings in Turkey, where only 15% expressed a favourable opinion, and in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where the figure was 18%. In both locations, unfavourable views formed a clear majority.
India image
The wider India image remains mixed rather than universally positive. Pew found that European countries generally lean more favourable than unfavourable toward India, while views across much of Latin America tend to move in the opposite direction. Several countries also recorded sizeable shares of respondents who did not express an opinion.
The results show that India enjoys strong goodwill in countries such as Sri Lanka, the UK, Kenya and Germany, but faces sharply different perceptions elsewhere. For publishers, useful internal links could point readers to India news, international affairs, India-Pakistan relations and foreign policy coverage to provide broader context.
