Looking at the 12 nations surveyed in both 2020 and this year, confidence in the United States to "do the right thing regarding world affairs" has increased from 17 percent at the end of the Donald Trump presidency to 75 percent. No confidence has fallen from 83 percent to 22 percent.

In the same period, the US' favourability has jumped from 34 percent to 62 percent. The unfavourable view has dropped from 63 percent to 36 percent. 

New Zealand - which wasn't included in the 2020 report - was the only country surveyed in 2021 which had more than half of its surveyed population hold an unfavourable view of the United States. The unfavourable view sits at 55 percent, compared to 42 percent with a favourable view.

The country with the fewest percentage of people expressing an unfavourable view was South Korea (22 percent), followed by Italy (24 percent) and Japan (26 percent). New Zealand had the highest unfavourable percentage, followed by Australia (49 percent) and Singapore (49 percent).

New Zealand also led the way in terms of countries which don't believe the US political system works very well or is a good example for other countries to follow.

"Asian-Pacific publics also tend to say Washington discounts their interests, including 85 percent among New Zealanders," the Pew Research Center says.

It says presidential transitions typically have "a major impact on overall attitudes toward the US," 

"When Barack Obama took office in 2009, ratings improved in many nations compared with where they had been during George W. Bush’s administration, and when Trump entered the White House in 2017, ratings declined sharply. This year, US favorability is up again."

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About 74 percent of those surveyed in New Zealand have confidence in Biden to do the right thing internationally. While that's higher than the confidence Kiwis have in France's Emmanuel Macron, Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping, it's below the confidence we have in Germany's Angela Merkel.

Far more people across the nations surveyed last year and this year have confidence in Biden than in Trump.

For example, just 9 percent of those in Belgium had confidence in Trump to "do the right thing regarding world affairs". That's jumped to 79 percent for Biden. The smallest swing was in Greece, where it moved from 25 percent confidence in Trump to 67 percent confidence in Biden.

"Biden’s high ratings are tied in part to positive assessments of his personal characteristics, and here again the contrast with Trump is stark," Pew Research Center says.

"Looking at 12 countries polled during the first year of both their presidencies, a median of 77 percent describe Biden as well-qualified to be president, compared with 16 percent who felt this way about Trump."

It says few people think of Biden as "arrogant or dangerous", characteristics many applied to Trump. 

"Assessments of the two leaders are more similar when it comes to being a strong leader, although even on this measure, Biden gets much more positive reviews than his predecessor."

Biden's foreign policy - including his approach to climate change - also received support. 

The full research results can be found here.