Who loves America the most, baby?

A recent Pew Research Center poll (pdf) revealed that anti-Americanism is deepening in many countries around the world. But, there are still some countries out there that admire the United States. In fact, some love the United States more than Americans themselves do!

The following are the three countries who like the United States even more than Americans do:

• Ivory Coast: 88% favorable opinion of U.S.; 11% unfavorable opinion
• Kenya: 87% favorable; 11% unfavorable
• Ghana: 80% favorable; 14% unfavorable

In contrast, 18% of Americans have an unfavorable view of their own country. So why do these three sub-Saharan African countries love the United States so much? Some speculated reasons include the United States' lack of "colonial baggage," the popularity of hip-hop and rap music, the perception that Africans are more readily integrated in the United States than in Europe, and Africans' possible lack of time to debate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan due to their daily reality of grinding poverty. To find out more, check out this week's FP List: Where Is the Love?

And to compare today to the landscape of anti-Americanism two years ago, see Anne Applebaum's cover story, "In Search of Pro-Americanism," in our July/August 2005 issue.