Majority of World Population Supports Globalism, Survey Finds

(Bloomberg) -- Maybe populist political movements don’t have as much support as often presumed.

The global public favors cooperation between nations, thinks immigration is a good thing and believes climate scientists, according to a poll of 10,000 people in every region of the world.

The poll was commissioned by the World Economic Forum and will be discussed at panels at this year’s meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

People in Southeast Asia and Africa were the strongest believers in countries working together, with 88 percent saying it’s extremely or very important. The least enthusiastic region was Western Europe, where 61 percent held that view. Worldwide, the figure was 76 percent, and in North America 70 percent.

A global majority of 57 percent said immigrants were “mostly good” for their new country, but only 40 percent of Eastern Europeans thought so. Despite the continuing standoff in the U.S. over building a wall along the Mexican border, 66 percent of North Americans had a positive view of migrants.

One theme where there’s less optimistic is social mobility, with only 20 percent of Western Europeans and 34 percent of Americans saying it’s common to be born poor and become rich.

Across the world, 54 percent have trust in climate scientists. But in North America only 17 percent do.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Andrew Atkinson

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