The feeling of being worse off than before the Arab spring was unsurprisingly highest in Syria (75% of respondents agreeing), Yemen (73%) and Libya (60%), where street protests gave way to civil wars and foreign intervention that have shattered each country .

The survey also covered Egypt and Tunisia, where long-serving authoritarian rulers were overthrown in early 2011, as well as Algeria, Sudan and Iraq, which initially witnessed only small-scale unrest a decade ago, but where significant anti-regime movements have since emerged.

Fewer than half of those surveyed in Egypt, Iraq and Algeria said they were worse off compared with before 2010; but in none of the three did more than a quarter of people say they were better off either.