Oren Dorell

USA TODAY

People in Asia, Africa, Latin America and even the Middle East are more optimistic about their children's future than Americans or Europeans, according to a new study.

"Asians are particularly optimistic about the next generation's financial prospects," according to the Pew Research Center's report "Emerging and Developing Economies Much More Optimistic Than Rich Countries About the Future," released Thursday.

Ninety-four percent of Vietnamese, 85% of Chinese, 71% of Bangladeshis and 67% of Indians think today's children will be better off than their parents, according to the report. Africans and Latin Americans are also mostly optimistic.

Middle Easterners tend to believe their children will be worse off (41% vs. 35% who think they'll be better off), but they're not as pessimistic as Europeans and Americans, where "pessimism is pervasive," according to the report.

Sixty-five percent of Europeans and Americans believe today's children will have worse standards of living as adults than their parents. The malaise is even worse in Japan, where 79% say young people will be worse off than their parents, and 63% believe their economy is not doing well.

The survey, based on 48,643 interviews in 44 countries, found attitudes about the future tend to be in line with countries' economic performance in the recent past.

The Pew report is consistent with a report by the International Monetary Fund that came out Tuesday. That report projected tepid 1.8% growth in advanced economies and described the European economy as suffering from "lingering fragilities." Emerging markets will account for "the lion's share" of global growth, with China's economy growing by 7.4 in 2014 to 2015, the IMF said.

Those in Europe and the USA, wealthy nations that have struggled to overcome the Great Recession, express more pessimism about prospects for the next generation. Countries that have had high levels of growth in recent years show higher confidence, said Katie Simmons, a senior researcher at Pew.

Large proportions of respondents in 30 of the 34 emerging and developing nations surveyed said they would counsel young people to stay at home to find the good life, rather than move to another country. That advice to young people was different, however, in countries such as Egypt, Lebanon and El Salvador, which have experienced civil strife.

In Egypt, satisfaction with the country's direction and economy "has taken a big hit" since the turmoil that began with the Arab Spring revolution of early 2011, Simmons said.

Satisfaction in Egypt dropped from 65% right after the revolution to 24% this year, Simmons said.

People all over the world, in rich countries and developing ones, view a gap between rich and poor as a big or very big problem, the report said.

Although incomes in the USA are down 8% since the financial crisis in 2007, and growth has flattened in advanced economies, standards of living in the world's richest nations is still better than elsewhere, says economist Chris Christopher, director of consumer economics at consultancy IHS Global Insight.

The average yearly income is $6,807 per person in China, and $1,499 in India, while in the USA average income is $53,143, according to the World Bank.

"On a per capita basis, everyday life, someone in the USA is fundamentally better off than someone in China, but the growth in their income is not going in the right direction," Christopher said. Positive change "makes people feel a lot better about their opportunity."