In a survey carried out by Statista Consumer Insights of 38 countries, only between 20 and 45 percent of respondents said that they considered environmental protection a major issue for their country. Respondents who belonged to Brazil were the most concerned about the environment, with those in Mexico, Peru and Colombia also rating environmental protection as more essential compared to most countries in the survey.
The results of Asia represented a more mixed view, with Indonesians seeing the issue as extremely significant, Indians and Chinese hitting around the survey average and Pakistanis ranked lower in the international comparison. However, the countries rating the environment as a major concern typically also rated many other issues as highly problematic. Regardless of fewer people seeing the problem in China and India, environmental protection was still rated as the second and third most important issue, respectively, by respondents in these countries followed by education, poverty and health/social security.
The respondents from developed countries rated climate change as more important than environmental protection, while it was the other way round in developing countries. European ratings ranked from 44 percent in Italy believing environmental protection a major issue to just 23 percent saying the same in Ireland. Among Americans, 27 percent thought the issue was most important - rank 10 among 20 issues and a tie with civil rights and immigration.
Infographic by: Statista
