Environmental Protection Not a Major Issue for Majority

In a survey of 38 countries carried out by Statista Consumer Insights, only between 21 and 44 percent of respondents said that they considered environmental protection a major issue for their country. Respondents in Brazil were the most concerned about the environment, with those in Mexico and Colombia also rating environmental protection as more important than most countries in the survey.

The picture was more mixed in Asia, with Indonesians seeing the issue as highly important, while respondents in Indian and China hit around the survey average and Pakistan ranked lower in the international comparison. However, the countries rating the environment as a major issue typically also rated many other issues as highly problematic. Despite fewer people seeing the problem in China and India, environmental protection was still rated as the second and fourth most important issue, respectively, by respondents in these countries behind the likes of health/social security or unemployment, education and poverty.

In developed countries, climate change was typically rated more important than environmental protection, while it was the other way round in developing countries. European ratings ranked from 40 percent in Italy deeming environmental protection a major issue to just 19 percent saying the same in Ireland. Among U.S. respondents, 27 percent thought the issue was major - rank 13 among 20 issues.