Pakistan one of world's most 'negative' nations: Poll

Pakistan has been viewed as one of the most negative countries in the world in a new poll.

The south Asian country was ranked after Israel, North Korea in terms of how they are viewed globally.

This year's annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service found that 55 percent of respondents viewed Pakistan as a negative country as compared to only 15 percent who had a mainly positive influence.

Iran was ranked the worst nation in the world globally with 59 percent of respondents viewing it as negative as compared to only 15 percent who viewed it as positive.

The poll found that India is ranked 12th, with 35 percent of respondents giving it negative views as compared to 34 percent who gave it positive views for the first time.

More than 26,000 people were surveyed and were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was 'mainly positive' or 'mainly negative'.

Nearly 54 percent of respondents viewed North Korea as 'mainly negative' as compared to only 19 percent who viewed it as 'mainly positive'.

The poll found that China's positive views too have fallen sharply around the world over the last year.

After improving for several years, views of China have sunk to their lowest level since polling began in 2005, putting it in ninth position.

According to the BBC, Germany was rated the most positively viewed nation in the world with 59 percent rating it positively.

The UK saw a bigger increase in positive ratings than any other country and climbed to third place in the table, in the wake of its hosting of the 2012 Olympics.

The poll was conducted for the BBC by GlobeScan and PIPA, who conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with randomly selected people, mainly in urban centres, in 25 countries around the globe.