Americans are becoming less positive about India, with unfavourable views of the country now exceeding favourable opinions for the first time in Pew Research Center s tracking. According to Pew s Spring 2026 Global Attitudes Survey, 45% of US adults have a fav Americans are becoming less positive about India, with unfavourable views of the country now exceeding favourable opinions for the first time in Pew Research Center s tracking. According to Pew s...
Americans are becoming less positive about India, with unfavourable views of the country now exceeding favourable opinions for the first time in Pew Research Center’s tracking.
According to Pew’s Spring 2026 Global Attitudes Survey, 45% of US adults have a favourable opinion of India, while 50% view the country unfavourably.
The latest numbers are among the weakest ratings for India since Pew began tracking American attitudes towards the country in 2008.
The decline has been gradual over the past few years. In 2023, 51% of Americans viewed India favourably. The figure dropped to 49% in 2025 and fell by another four percentage points in 2026.
Pew highlighted the trend in a post on X, saying the latest ratings were among the lowest recorded since it began asking Americans about India in 2008.
The survey covered 42,092 adults across 36 countries and also showed that American views of India vary based on political affiliation and age.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents were more positive towards India than Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
Around 50% of Democrats had a favourable opinion of India, compared with 42% of Republicans.
The ideological divide was even wider. Among liberal Americans, 54% viewed India favourably, while only 40% of conservatives shared that opinion.
Americans aged 65 and above were the most positive towards India, with 50% expressing a favourable view. Among those aged between 18 and 29, the figure was lower at 42%.
Globally, India’s image remains slightly more positive.
Across the 36 countries surveyed, a median of 45% of respondents had a favourable opinion of India, compared with 41% who viewed the country unfavourably.
Sri Lanka recorded the strongest positive view of India at 79%, followed by Kenya and the UK at 71% each. Germany also registered relatively favourable opinions.
However, India’s ratings have weakened in some countries, including South Korea, Turkey and Bangladesh.
The survey also examined how Americans view India’s growing role in global affairs.
Around 54% of US respondents said India’s influence in world affairs had remained about the same in recent years, while 30% believed the country had become more influential.
The findings suggest that while India continues to enjoy a broadly positive image in several parts of the world, its standing among the American public has weakened noticeably compared with a few years ago.
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