Humanity is threatened every day — by disease, environmental changes and, often, people.

Pew recently released the results of its 2014 Global Attitudes survey and found that the world shares many fears, but the reality in which people live determines which is the most threatening. Seven years ago, people were more likely to choose inequality as the top threat. Today, just as many people are likely to believe that persecution based on religion or ethnicity is the greatest threat.

In wealthier countries, including the United States and much of Europe, the most common threat was that the wealth wasn’t being shared. For example, nearly 55 percent of Spanish respondents said that the gap between rich and poor was more threatening than nuclear weapons, hatred, pollution or disease. In the United States, the top response was inequality (27 percent), but many also cited nuclear weapons (23 percent) and religious and ethnic hatred (24 percent).

In Central and South America, the responses were mixed. Many Colombians, Peruvians, Nicaraguans and Argentineans said that pollution and environmental changes were a top priority, while Chileans, Venezuelans, Brazilians and Mexicans were more concerned about nuclear weapons. 

As the self-proclaimed Islamic State rose in the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalated, the majority of respondents from Lebanon (58 percent), Palestine (40 percent) and Israel (30 percent) said that the greatest threat to the world is religious and ethnic hatred, while many others cited weapons of war. Few were concerned about pollution or diseases.

In Africa, those concerns were quite the opposite. AIDS and other diseases were the greatest threats to the world, although in Nigeria, religious and ethnic hatred had a bigger impact. 

In Asia, countries with an industrial pollution problem, like China or Thailand, said the environment was a top threat. In Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India, religious and ethnic discrimination was far more threatening. Japan, the only country to ever survive a nuclear attack, maintains that nuclear weapons are the greatest threat to the world.

In Africa, AIDS and other diseases were the greatest threats to the world, although in some countries like Nigeria, religious and ethnic hatred had a bigger impact.