Thread: Is your country proud of itself?

National Pride Varies Greatly Across Europe
And it’s much lower than in the United States, according to new five-country survey

ROCHESTER, N.Y. and LONDON – June 24, 2004 – A new survey by HI Europe finds that the proportion of people who feel "very proud" of their countries varies greatly from 57% in Spain to only 23% in Germany. And, in all five of the largest European countries, national pride is far lower than in the United States where, in The Harris Poll® conducted in 2002, fully 84% of adults were very proud to be American.

The new European data comes from a five-country HI Europe survey conducted online with samples of 2,339 adults in Great Britain, 2,018 adults in France, 2,078 in Germany, 2,120 adults in Italy and 1,382 adults in Spain between June 3 and 8, 2004. In each country, a national cross section of adults was asked "how proud do you feel to be from [your country]?

The results show that:

In Spain, fully 57% are very proud of being Spanish, and 78% are very or somewhat proud while 13% are not proud to be Spanish.
In Italy, 46% are very proud to be Italians and 85% are very or somewhat proud with 13% not proud to be Italians.
In Britain, 43% are very proud to be British, 78% are very or somewhat proud and 15% are not proud to be British.
In France, 33% are very proud to be French, 81% are very or somewhat proud and 11% are not proud to be French.
In Germany, the level of national pride is substantially lower than in the other countries surveyed. Only 23% are very proud to be German, 57% are very or somewhat proud and fully 35% are not proud to be German.
Reasons for the differences

The surveys do not provide any data to explain these big differences. However, they surely reflect many factors including how history is taught in the schools, the degree of nationalism (or even jingoism) in the country’s media, the rate of growth of the economy and the level of unemployment.

The low level of national pride in Germany probably reflects all of these factors. Since World War II, Germany has been very unusual, if not unique, in teaching its students about the evils committed by the Nazi government and by many Germans during the Holocaust. Few, if any, other countries teach their students the negative things done by their countries.

On the other hand, as victims of terrorism in 2001, it is perhaps not surprising to see the unification of national pride amongst Americans with the overwhelming majority of adults (84% U.S. Harris Poll 2002) feeling very proud to be from the United States. Foreign observers of the United States have often been surprised by the frequent and open displays of American patriotism, the waving of the flag, the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the talk of "American exceptionalism," all of which may, in addition, contribute to the much higher level of national pride in America.

Table of results here:

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/new...asp?NewsID=815