Two-fifths of Americans believe the United States is the greatest nation on earth
Democratic presidential candidate and confessed socialist Bernie Sanders has always made clear that his view of socialism is far removed from Gulags and the iron curtain and instead is closer to the welfare states of Scandinavia. America, he argues, could learn a thing or two from these countries which routinely top global league tables as the best countries on earth.
YouGov's research shows that 40% of Americans think that the United States is the best country on earth. A further 34% think that we are 'among' the best countries on earth. 16% think the US is 'pretty average' and only 5% say that the US is 'among the worst' or even is the worst country on earth. Republicans (61%) are particularly likely to believe that the United States is the greatest nation in existence.
Despite the widespread sense that the United States is one of the greatest countries Americans do believe that we could learn a thing or two from other nations. 39% say that the US could learn 'a lot' from other countries. Only 14% think that there is not much or nothing that we can learn from others.
Most Americans (52%) say that the rest of the world has 'a lot' to learn from us.
Full poll results can be found here and topline results and margin of error here.
