Brazil was viewed favorably by 49 percent, up from 40 percent last year and made the largest gain by any of the 16 countries respondents were asked about, the BBC said.

Overall, positive ratings rose for 13 of the nations, the BBC said.

Germany remained the most popular country and the image of the United States improved for the fourth straight year, results released Sunday indicated.

The order of popularity was Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Canada, France, United States, Brazil, China, South Africa, India, South Korea, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran.

More than 28,000 people were surveyed across the world between December 2010 and February 2011 by international polling firm GlobeScan and the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

"While last year relatively dour views of nations were prevalent -- perhaps reflecting the mood of the economic downturn -- the mood now seems to be relatively upbeat," Program on International Policy Attitudes Director Steven Kull said.

Results are based on interviews with 28,619 citizens in 27 countries. The margin of error per country ranges from 2.8 percentage points to 4.9 percentage points.