44% Indians worry about unemployment, corruption the most, reveals survey

Unemployment, financial and political corruption, as also crime and violence are among the key issues bothering Indians the most, says a survey.

The survey — 'What Worries the World' conducted by the Ipsos, an independent market research company — shows that 44 per cent of respondents in respect to India are bothered about unemployment, and financial and political corruption.

While 33 per cent of survey respondents from India are concerned about crime and violence, 31 per cent of Indians surveyed termed poverty and social inequality as a major issue. Terrorism was also listed among the issues with 21 per cent respondents saying they were concerned about it.

"The other significant ones (worrying Indians) are — education (19 per cent), threats against the environment (16 per cent), taxes (15 per cent), climate change (14 per cent), healthcare (13 per cent), Inflation (11 per cent) and moral decline (10 per cent).

The survey also points out that 67 per cent Indians believe that the country is headed in the right direction.

"Interestingly, India bucks the global trend where more markets are downbeat -- at least 60 per cent of people across the 28 markets covered feel their country is on the wrong track," it said.

According to the survey, "The top four markets that are optimistic about the direction their country is taking has China at the top (92 per cent), followed by Saudi Arabia (78 per cent), India (67 per cent) and Malaysia (65 per cent)."

It further said global citizens are most worried about financial/ political corruption (34 per cent), unemployment (33 per cent), poverty/ social inequality (33 per cent), crime and violence (31 per cent) and healthcare (24 per cent).

Terrorism, which is one of the top five worries for Indians, does not feature in the global top five list, the survey added.

On the other hand, the survey pointed out that some of the markets are quite unhappy with the direction their countries are going in and are highly pessimistic about the future, particularly Brazil, Spain, South Africa, France and Peru.

Only 12 per cent Brazilians feel their country is in the right direction, followed by 19 per cent in both Spain and South Africa. Likewise, only 24 per cent French citizens think their country is in the right direction.

'What Worries the World' survey is a monthly online survey of adults aged under 65 and was conducted in 28 countries around the world via the Ipsos Online Panel system.

The 28 countries included are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.