Two Swedish economists sought to examine “whether economic freedom made people any more or less racist.” To measure a country’s level of racial tolerance they used the World Values Survey. This tool has been measuring global attitudes and opinions for years. There was one question from the World Values Survey that the economists thought would be able to provide the best indicator of tolerance for other races.

Respondents in over 80 countries were asked to identify the “kinds of people they would not want as neighbours.” One choice on the survey was “people of a different race”, and the economists suggested that the frequency with which respondents made that choice in a particular country would determine how racially tolerant that society is, the more respondents made that choice, the less racially tolerant that specific country is.

The World map below was compiled by Max Fisher based on the data from the study. The bluer colours depict countries that do not want neighbours of a different race, while red countries depict that more people do want poeple of a different race.

If we treat this data as indicative of racial tolerance, then we might conclude that people in the bluer countries are the least likely to express racist attitudes, while the people in red countries are the most likely.

The data translates into Anglo and Latin countries being the most tolerant. The United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are more likely to embrace a racially diverse neighbourhood.

India, Jordan, Bangladesh and Hong Kong are the least tolerant countires. 43,5% of Indians, 51,4% of Jordanians and 71,8% of Hong Kongers would not want a neighbour of a different race.

The Middle East is not tolerant and there is low racial tolerance in diverse Asian countries. Indonesia and the Philippines are not open to diversity. South Korea is also not so tolerant. The data showed that one in three South Koreans do not want a neighbour of a different race.

*The study found there to be no correlation between econimic freedom and racial tolerance.

[Source: Washington Post]