Excellent interest in Finland: NATO provides boosted Finland’s country image

The particular Ministry for Foreign Affairs will be publishing more analysis results about Finland’s nation image in early 2023 using the release of the annual overview of Finland’s country image and Finland in the World Media survey.
An international country image research commissioned by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs reveals that Finland’s NATO membership procedure has drawn exceptional attention to Finland. The survey was carried out in ten countries: the United States, Germany, Japan, the uk, India, Brazil, Türkiye, Southern Korea, China and Russian federation. As many as 72% of the respondents recalled having heard news about Finland during the past season. Finland’s NATO process has been mentioned by 49% because the news event they remember about Finland.

High visibility has affected perceptions of Finland

Overall, perceptions of Finland have become better. Disregarding the Russian reactions, 48% of the respondents pointed out that their perception of Finland improved during the last 12 months. Only 3% reported that will their perception worsened. One of the Russian respondents, 17% pointed out an improvement and 28% a worsening in their perception of Finland.
Learning much more:

Finland’s picture improved significantly

Almost half of the respondents to an worldwide country image survey indicated that their perception of Finland improved during the last season. Finland’s NATO membership process has greatly contributed in order to increasing Finland’s visibility overseas and to improving perceptions associated with Finland.
When asked about the reasons for the improvement in their understanding, 20% of the respondents stated Finnish people, 14% the particular NATO process, and 10% the Government and foreign plan. Other reasons mentioned were economic growth (9%), environment (8%), global causes (7%), education (7%), stance in the war in Ukraine (7%) plus public policy (5%).
The survey is based on the responses of approximately 4, 000 adults in middle or high revenue households. All the respondents had been internationally active: they have lived or studied abroad, they travel abroad at least a twice year or their particular job involves dealing with international clients. All the respondents have a graduate degree. The study had been conducted by Bloom Talking to in July–August 2022.

Finland’s NATO membership process affects perceptions

The survey implies that perceptions of Finland possess changed the most in Indian, Brazil, Türkiye and the United states of america. Perceptions of Finland in the past year improved among 82% of respondents in Indian, 63% in Brazil, 54% in Türkiye and 52% in the United States.
Finland’s NATO process had a positive impact on the respondents’ determination to relocate to Finland (43%), to visit Finland (49%), to invest in Finland (47%) and to buy Finnish products (47%). Disregarding the Russian reactions, more than 50% of the respondents indicated that they would be a lot more willing to visit Finland, spend money on Finland and buy Finnish products because of the NATO process.

Details about the survey

Finland’s overall visibility had been record high in 2022. The Foreign Ministry’s own media monitoring shows that Finland’s international visibility doubled or even tripled in 2022 compared to 2021. In May 2022, the number of web searches for Finland grew tenfold compared to the year start average. The highest numbers of searches were related to Finland’s political management and to the EU plus NATO. Interest in Finland’s Protection Forces and Finland’s relations with Türkiye grew the most.
As many as 74% from the respondents who are aware of NATO and its mission reported being conscious of Finland’s NATO membership procedure. Disregarding the Russian reactions, 56% of the respondents who are aware of NATO indicated that news about Finland’s NATO process has improved their own overall perception of Finland. The greatest positive impact is at the United States, where 77% of the respondents reported an improvement within their perception of Finland. Only 14% of the Russian participants indicated that Finland’s NATO process had improved their perception, while 50% documented that their perception got worsened. In China, enhanced perception and worsened perception were reported by 28% of the respondents, respectively. Within the other countries, the reveal of respondents reporting a noticable difference was higher than the share reporting a worsening.
News about Finland provides improved people’s perceptions associated with Finland: half of the respondents who recalled news regarding Finland indicated that the news coverage had a positive effect on their perception of Finland. Because of Russia’s invasion associated with Ukraine, we have examined the particular survey results also with no Russian responses. In this light, as many as 54% of the respondents indicated that the news protection improved their perception of Finland.

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