Canadians are more likely than residents of many countries to feel as though the global pandemic has united them, a survey suggests.

Released Thursday, the survey interviewed 14,276 adults in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and South Korea between June 10 and Aug. 3.

Overall, 46 per cent of respondents told the Washington-based Pew Research Centre that they felt more unity now than before the coronavirus outbreak — while 48 per cent thought divisions have grown.

At the two ends of the national unity spectrum were the Americans and Danes. Seventy-seven per cent of the respondents in the U.S. believed their country is more divided now than before, while 72 per cent of those in Denmark said the crisis has brought people together.

Canada came second only to Denmark in having the most positive outlook about national unity, with 66 per cent of the respondents saying Canadians have become more united as a result of the pandemic.

“In every country surveyed, those who think their country has done a bad job of dealing with the coronavirus outbreak are more likely to say that their country is now more divided,” said the report.

“In Europe, those who have favorable opinions of right-wing populist parties are more likely than those with unfavorable views to say division has grown since the coronavirus outbreak began.”

In all 14 countries except the U.S. and the U.K., more than half of the respondents said they were happy with their governments’ coronavirus response.

However, 54 per cent of British respondents disapproved of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the crisis, while 52 per cent of their American peers expressed disapproval of President Donald Trump’s performance.

The Danish and Australian governments received overwhelming support from their peoples for their effort in battling the pandemic, with approval ratings in the mid 90s, followed closely by the positive views of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government’s response to COVID-19, at 88 per cent. The international average was 73 per cent.

The extent of economic damages caused by the pandemic appears to have a bearing on how people assessed their own country’s handling of the pandemic.

“Those who think their current national economic situation is good are more likely than those who believe the economy is bad to say their country has done a good job of dealing with the coronavirus outbreak,” said the survey. “This divergence is especially pronounced in the United States.”

Among Americans with a more optimistic view of the economy, 78 per cent reported they approved of the way the White House has dealt with the virus. But among those who believed the American economy is in bad shape, only 34 per cent approved of Trump’s pandemic response.

In Canada, respondents gave the federal government a thumbs-up regardless of their outlook on the economy, with 95 per cent of the optimists and 84 per cent of the pessimists endorsing the Canadian government’s response to the crisis.

“Canadians are quite positive about how their country has handled the COVID-19 outbreak. Those who identify with the political left voice more satisfaction than those on the political right, but both of these groups still overwhelmingly say that, overall, their country has done well handling the pandemic,” said PEW centre researcher Kat Devlin.

About two-thirds or more of the respondents in South Korea, Sweden, the U.S., the U.K., Japan and Canada said their lives have changed at least a fair amount due to the pandemic as a result of lockdowns and different public health safety measures.

On the contrary, in six countries — Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands — about half or more said that their lives had not changed much or at all since the onset of the virus. All these nations except Australia did put in place national-level lockdowns to counter the spread of COVID-19.

The majority of respondents across the 14 countries did feel the number of coronavirus cases would have been lower in their country had there been stronger international co-operation.

“Missed opportunities for cooperation to reduce coronavirus cases are felt especially strongly in Europe, where failure to coordinate the initial response led to sudden and severe outbreaks in Northern Italy and Spain,” said the report.

“More than half in seven of the nine European countries surveyed say that more cooperation would have reduced coronavirus cases.”

The researchers said the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling would be expected at the 95 per cent level of confidence for different groups

Almost 24 million people have been infected with COVID-17 worldwide, with about 815,000 deaths.

Nicholas Keung is a Toronto-based reporter covering immigration for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @nkeung