Interest In Politics Often Ranks Low

Interest in politics varies among countries and for a majority of the 21 nations surveyed by Statista Consumer Insights between July 2023 and June 2024, politics was in the bottom half of the most frequently named personal interests out of 18 surveyed.

As Statista’s Kathartina Buchholz details below, the topic ranked lowest in India (15 out of 18), followed by Mexico (rank 14), France and South Africa (rank 13).

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The share of respondents naming politics as an interest also varied between countries where it ranked similarly.

For example, 19 percent of French people interested in politics constituted rank 13, while in South Africa rank 13 equated to 35 percent of respondents expressing an interest in politics.

In the U.S., 24 percent named politics and current events as an interest of theirs – rank 11 out of 18.

The biggest share of people said they were interested in politics in Finland and Brazil at 36 percent. Again, ranks varied widely as this led to the topic being the sixth most frequently named in Finland while it was only in rank 12 in Brazil. In Japan, only 19 percent said they were interested, which still ranked politics as the eighth most popular subject. The topic ranked highest in Germany in rank 5.

These differences are due to some nationalities expressing interest in more topics, while others name fewer. Brazilians on average said they were interested in seven topics, similar to results in South Africa and close to those in India (6.6) and Mexico (6.2). For comparison, Germans and Fins on average were interested in 5.4 to 5.9 topics, while French people and Americans only named an average of 4.8. The only country picking fewer interests were South Korea (4.1) and Japan (3.4).

Topics that were more popular than politics in all surveyed countries were movies/music/TV and travel as well as health and fitness. More popular in almost all countries were sports as well as food and dining. The only topics consistently less interesting than politics were gaming and eSports as well as VIPs and celebrities.