While American views of the economic prowess of China have declined due to several trade and policy issues, those who believe the United States is now the leading economic power in the world has increased.
That finding is revealed in a new survey conducted by Gallup Incorporated, showing that 44% of Americans place the U.S. in the number one position as a global economic power. That figure represents an increase of 7% over a similar Gallup survey taken two years ago.
At the same time, those viewing China as the world’s number one global power have declined from 50% in 2021 to 42% today. Such figures are indicative of an attitudinal upheaval among Gallup’s respondents, who overwhelmingly placed China in the number one position in surveys conducted between 2008 and 2020.
“Democrats and independents are responsible for the increased belief that the U.S. is the leading economic power in the world today,” notes a narrative accompanying the Gallup survey. “Both party groups show significant increases from 2021 in the percentage choosing the U.S.: 14 points among Democrats and nine points among independents.”
Republican responses to the same question revealed a movement in the other direction, with 43% of respondents in 2021 calling the U.S. the number one global economic power, a figure dropping to 39% this year.
A plurality of respondents, by a 44% to 37% margin, also believe that the U.S. will remain the world’s leading economic power two decades from now. Considerably lower on the response list: India and the European Union, seen by only 5% as becoming the world’s number one economic power by the 2040s.
Russia placed at the bottom of the list, with just 3% of respondents thinking the nation will emerge as the number one economic power on the globe in the next 20 years.
The Gallup essay noted that American attitudes regarding the resilience of the U.S. as the primary world economic power have “generally shifted according to the perceived health of the U.S. economy.”
Reflective of that latter trend, a separate Gallup survey indicated that 64% of respondents thought it was currently a good time to find a quality job in the U.S. That figure is significantly up from the 22% who responded similarly just two years ago.
By Garry Boulard
