Which country do you think has the worst influence in the world?

That was the question asked to 28.000 people in 27 countries around the globe, and the results are interesting even though they aren't surprising. In the top three we have Israel, Iran and the USA. After asking each country (12 of them, plus the European Union), people had to say if they thought that that country had a good influence in the world or a bad influence. Following the top 3, we have North Korea (USA worst influence than NK? Think about it...), Russia and China.

This study has been conducted by the BBC World Service in coordination with PIPA at the University of Maryland. As Steven Kull, from the University of Maryland says:

It appears that people around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the use or pursuit of military power. This includes Israel and the U.S., who have recently used military force, and North Korea and Iran, who are perceived as trying to develop nuclear weapons.

And he adds:

Countries that relate to the world primarily through soft power, like Japan, France, and the EU in general, tend to be viewed positively.

Here is the table showing the results of the survey

Country        Positive       Negative       Difference

Canada         54             14              40
Japan          54             20              34
EU             53             19              34
France         50             21              29
U.K.           45             28              17
India          37             26              11
China          42             32              10
Venezuela      27             27              0
Russia         28             40             -12
U.S.           30             51             -21
North Korea    19             48             -29
Iran           18             54             -36
Israel         17             56             -39

If you want to read more, go to Bloomberg.com, Elpais.com (in Spanish) or Yahoo News.