A Divided World Looks to 2026: Optimism in the Global South, Anxiety in the West and Among Older Generations

The Latest Findings from the World’s Longest-Running Global Public Opinion Study

The Gallup International End-of-Year (EOY) Survey (Gallup International Association), the world’s longest-running global public opinion study, reveals a sharply divided global outlook as people look ahead to 2026. Conducted annually since 1977, the End-of-Year (EOY) Survey is carried out by the Gallup International Association (GIA) — a worldwide network of more than 65 professional and independent polling organizations operating across continents.

The Association was founded in 1947 by George Gallup, the pioneer of modern scientific public opinion polling, and continues to bring together some of the most experienced and respected survey organizations from around the world to provide a unique, real-time snapshot of global public sentiment.

The latest End-of-Year (EOY) Survey covers 60 countries and is based on interviews with 59,636 adults, making it one of the most comprehensive internationally coordinated assessments of public sentiment anywhere in the world. A defining feature of the study is that it is conducted within one of the shortest synchronized global fieldwork windows, ensuring that public opinion is captured at the same moment across diverse political, economic, and cultural contexts.

As the findings show, the world entering 2026 is deeply divided: emerging and developing regions in the Global South remain relatively optimistic, while advanced Western economies — and older generations across regions — express growing anxiety, particularly about economic prospects and global peace.

Hope Remains Present, but Uneven Across Regions

Globally, 37 % of respondents believe that 2026 will be a better year than 2025, while 25 % expect it to be worse and 31 % expect no major change. This produces a Net Hope score of +11, indicating that optimism continues to outweigh pessimism at the global level.
Compared with the End-of-Year 2024 Survey, when 41 % expected the coming year to be better and 24 % expected it to be worse, we are marginally less optimistic for 2026.
Hope is strongest in the Global South, particularly in the Arab World, South Asia, Africa1, and Latin America, while optimism remains muted across Western and Eastern Europe, where expectations of stagnation are more common.

Top 5 Most Hopeful Countries (Net Hope)
Kenya (+67), Syria (+61), Saudi Arabia (+58), South Africa (+52), Colombia (+45)

Bottom 5 Least Hopeful Countries
Bulgaria (–36), Bosnia and Herzegovina (–28), Austria (–26), Belgium (–26), Ghana (–26)

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