BBC poll: world's opinion of America improves under Obama

Since Barack Obama was elected president, the world's view of America has "improved sharply" according to BBC poll.

Approximately 30,000 people in 28 countries were asked to rate specific countries and if they had any positive impact on the world. 46% rated America's influence as positive. It was the first time since 2005 that a BBC poll resulted in more positive responses than negative for the United States. Steven Kull, from the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland who assisted with the poll said:

After a year, it appears the 'Obama effect' is real. Its influence on people's views worldwide, though, is to soften the negative aspects of the United States' image, while positive aspects are not yet coming into strong focus.

In Germany, Positive ratings for America in Germany improved to 39% from 18% in 2009. These boosts in favourability ratings helped America surpass China, whose positive ratings dropped to 41% (China is viewed positively?). Only Turkey and India's positive views of America experienced a drop. However, America still lags behind other countries such as Germany, which has an average (and the highest) positive rating of 59%, then Japan at 53%, Great Britain at 52%, Canada 51% and France 49%.

Iran received the least positive rating at 15%, followed by Pakistan at 16%, North Korea with 17% (North Korea wasn't the lowest?), Israel 19% and Russia 30%.