The fight for marriage equality continues to dominate global headlines, but a new survey reveals a surprising divide on the acceptance of homosexuality around the world.
Part of the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, the "Global Divide on Homosexuality" poll found generally broad acceptance of homosexuality in North America, Europe and much of Latin America, while Russia, much of Asia and predominately Muslim nations were more inclined to reject it.
Researchers found that a staggering 88 percent of participants in Spain felt that homosexuality should be accepted, followed by 87 percent in Germany, 80 percent in Canada and 60 percent in the United States. On the flip side, a mere two percent of Pakistani participants felt homosexuality should be accepted, followed by just one percent in Nigeria.
“We’ve been polling all over the world and we’ve polled on every issue, from foreign policy issues to other social issues," researcher Juliana Horowitz told the Toronto Star. "I can’t think of any question that was polled on that we see this level of global polarization, with some countries so firmly on one side and other countries so firmly on the other side.”
The study surveyed a total of 37,653 people in 39 countries. Check out the full results here.
Take a look at a selection of nations, along with the percentage of their populations who felt that homosexuality should be accepted, as revealed by the poll below:
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