More than 26,000 people were surveyed internationally for the poll.

 

They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was "mainly positive" or "mainly negative".

 

Germany came out top with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.

 

Global views of Europe's biggest country have improved significantly in 2013, according to the poll.

 

It was conducted for the BBC by GlobeScan and PIPA, who conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with randomly² selected people, mainly in urban centres, in 25 countries around the globe.

 

A three-point increase in Germany's average rating returned it to the top of the BBC list, displacing Japan, which saw its positive ratings drop from 58% to 51%, and fell from first to fourth place overall.

 

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 also indicates that positive views of China and India 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.

 

India is ranked 12th, with negative views (35%) slightly outnumbering positive ones (34%) for the first time.

 

 

In Ghana, 84% of people polled said Germany's influence was mainly positive, while 81% in neighbouring France and 76% in Australia felt the same. The big exception to the trend was in recession-hit Greece, where a majority of people polled gave Germany negative ratings.

 

Positive views of the EU dropped to their lowest level last year but have stabilised this year, rising one point to 49% on average.

 

But this figure masks significant changes. There has been a sharp drop in positive ratings by Germans, down 14 points to 59%. Canadians and Americans both give significantly lower ratings to the EU. In the UK, positive views of the EU continue to fall steadily⁴ and, for the first time this year, more Britons rate it negatively (47%) than positively (42%).

 

Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Iran came out worst in terms of how they are viewed globally. Only 15% of respondents said they saw Iran as having a mainly positive influence.

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