WASHINGTON: In Pakistan, people were more concerned about nuclear weapons than religious and ethnic hatred as a major threat to their security, says a US survey released on Friday.

In India, however, people saw religious and ethnic hatred as a greater threat, although, like Pakistan, India too is a nuclear state.

In the Middle East, which is engulfed in growing conflicts, people saw religious and ethnic hatred as the greatest threat to the world.

The Washington-based Pew Research Centre conducted the survey in 44 countries among 48,643 respondents, from March 17 to June 5, 2014.

Asked what they thought was the greatest threat to the world, 30 per cent Pakistanis named nuclear weapons while 29 pc said inequality. Only 13 pc named ethnic and religious hatred, 3 pc marked pollution and environment and 7 pc named AIDS and other diseases.

US survey says most Pakistanis are not concerned about AIDS and other diseases

In India, 25 pc saw religious and ethnic hatred as the greatest threat to the world, 22 pc marked inequality and only 19 pc named nuclear weapons. Pollution and environment was a concern for14 pc and AIDS and other diseases for 10 pc.

The threat of religious and ethnic violence was a top concern other regions of the world too but in Europe inequality trumped all other dangers.

They Europeans said that growing gap between the rich and the poor was increasingly becoming the world’s top problem. People living in other advanced economies, including the United States, also shared this view.

Asians and Latin Americans were somewhat divided about the world’s greatest danger, but pollution and environmental problems as well as the spread of nuclear weapons were high on their list of threats.

African countries saw AIDS and other infectious diseases as the most pressing issue in the world today.

Around a quarter of Americans (27 pc) said the growing gap between the rich and the poor was the greatest threat to the world today, with 24 pc saying this about religious and ethnic hatred and 23 pc expressing concern about the spread of nuclear weapons.

A median of 32 pc across seven EU nations said the growing gap between the rich and the poor was the top threat and inequality was rated the number one danger in five of these countries.

Religious and ethnic divisions ranked highest in Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

In Nigeria, where Boko Haram terrorists in the restive north of the country are creating havoc, 38 pc said religious and ethnic hatred was the biggest problem for the world.

In the UK, people on the ideological right of the political spectrum voiced greater worries about religious and ethnic hatred, while those on the left were more concerned about inequality.

Similarly, in the US, Republicans were much more likely to name religious and ethnic hatred as the greatest threat to the world (35 pc) than are Democrats (15 pc) and independents (23 pc).

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2014