The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), released the results of an unprecedented worldwide survey of anti-Semitic attitudes. The ADL Global 100: An Index of Anti-Semitism surveyed 53,100 adults in 102 countries and territories in an effort to establish, for the first time, a comprehensive databased research survey of the level and intensity of anti-Jewish sentiment across the world.

The survey concentrated on seven major regions of the world accounting for about 88% of the worlds total adult population. The survey found that anti-Semitic attitudes are persistent and pervasive around the world. More than one-in-four adults, 26% of those surveyed, are deeply infected with antiSemitic attitudes. This figure represents an estimated 1.09 billion people around the world.

The overall ADL Global 100 Index score represents the percentage of respondents who answered “probably true” to six or more of 11 negative stereotypes about Jews. An 11-question index has been used by ADL as a key metric in measuring anti-Semitic attitudes in the US for the last 50 years.

“For the first time we have a real sense of how pervasive and persistent anti-Semitism is today around the world,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “The data from the Global 100 Index enables us to look beyond anti-Semitic incidents and rhetoric and quantify the prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes across the globe. We can now identify hotspots, as well as countries and regions of the world where hatred of Jews is essentially non-existent.”

“The level of anti-Semitism in some countries and regions, even those where there are no Jews, is in many instances shocking,” said Barry CurtissLusher, ADL National Chair. “We hope this unprecedented effort to measure and gauge anti-Semitic attitudes globally will serve as a wake-up call to governments, to international institutions and to people of conscience that anti-Semitism is not just a relic of history, but a current event.”

At the same time, there are highly encouraging notes in the ADL survey. In majority English-speaking countries, the percentage of those with antiSemitic attitudes is 13%, far lower than the overall average. Protestant majority countries in general have the lowest ratings of anti-Semitic attitudes, as compared to any other majority religious country. And 28% of respondents around the world do not believe that any of the 11 anti-Semitic stereotypes tested are “probably true.”