Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Seventeen percent of the world is anti-Semitic: The World Values Survey asked people if there were certain kinds of people you wouldn't want as neighbors. The following proportions refer to Jews:

Iraq (2004) .83
Turkey (2001) .62
Republic of Korea (2001) .41
Serbian Republic of Bosnia (2001) .36
Spain (2000) .34
Poland (1999) .26
Republic of Moldova (2002) .25
Bosnia Federation (2001) .24
Romania (1999) .23
Uganda (2001) .23
Lithuania (1999) .22
Malta (1999) .21
Kyrgyzstan (2003) .20
Bangladesh (2002) .20
Macedonia, Republic of (2001) .20
South Africa (2001) .19
Greece (1999) .19

World .17

Zimbabwe (2001) .17
Bulgaria (1999) .17
Albania (2002) .17
Slovenia (1999) .17
Egypt (2000) .17
Croatia (1999) .16
Belarus (2000) .15
Italy (1999) .13
Northern Ireland (1999) .12
Russian Federation (1999) .11
Ireland (1999) .11
Estonia (1999) .11
Belgium (1999) .11
Portugal (1999) .11
Ukraine (1999) .10
Uruguay (1996) .10
Slovakia (1999) .10
Luxembourg (1999) .10
United States (1999) .09
Chile (2000) .09
Germany East (1999) .09
Austria (1999) .09
Finland (2000) .08
Argentina (1999) .06
Great Britain (1999) .06
France (1999) .06
Latvia (1999) .05
Germany West (1999) .05
Czech Republic (1999) .04
Iceland (1999) .04
Canada (2000) .04
Denmark (1999) .02
Sweden (1999) .02
Netherlands (1999) .02

According to this sample, 17% of the world is anti-Semitic. Not surprisingly, Muslim countries rank high--83% of Iraqis wouldn't want a Jewish neighbor. (But countries like Egypt are in the middle). Korea--the only East Asian country in the sample--ranks very high, as does Spain among European countries. Eastern Europe is mixed with higher numbers in the south. SS African countries fall towards the middle. South American nations have low numbers, as does Western Europe, especially in the north. English-speaking countries also fall toward the bottom.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:54 PM

    Perhaps in the West, it's a rural-urban divide of sorts, with the latter instinctively more tolerant and inclusive. As a 1998 ADL survey of America found, "The most anti-Semitic Americans tend to have less day-to-day contact with Jews than does the rest of the population. "(http://www.adl.org/antisemitism_survey/survey_iii.asp)

    As for America, in a way, it's higher than reality, in that blacks and hispanics are far more likely to be antisemitic (http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/2002/as_survey.pdf page 27 - the percentages in themselves are not accurate, as the actual survey is woefully biased, but in comparing groups, it's probably accurate).

    Considering that ADL's national rate is 17, and your survey is 9, dividing ADL figures by two, the white antisemitic proportion is 6%.

    As for Korea, considering its homogeneity, it may be xenophobia - they wouldn't want a Swede or Indian living next to them either. I was quite surprised by its figure, one worthy of further investigation.

    Ron, is there any evidence of whether the respondents voice their true feelings or not?

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  2. TSM: Survey respondents are told that their answers are anonymous and will never be linked to them, and questions are presented neutrally. That countries like Iraq have such high numbers is an indication that people are giving honest answers, and in my experience people are surprisingly candid. But some people might hide their true feelings in a country like the US, or even more so in some European countries were anti-Semitism is illegal.

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