Pewglobal.com: As the Islamic militant group ISIS continues to entrench itself in Syria and Iraq, and instigate terrorist attacks around the world, concerns about Islamic extremism are growing in the West and in countries with significant Muslim populations. Since 2011, the percentage saying they arevery concerned about Islamic extremism in their country has increased 38 percentage points in France, 29 points in Spain, 21 points in the United Kingdom, 20 points in Germany and 17 points in the United States.

Concerns are also up significantly in Nigeria (+18), the Palestinian territories (+16), Lebanon (+12), Pakistan (+9) and Turkey (+8) since 2013, before ISIS became widely known.

Worries about extremism are higher across the Western countries surveyed than they are in the Muslim countries surveyed.Overall, a median of 52% across nine Western nations are very concerned about Islamic extremism. Across the 10 countries with Muslim populations of around half or more (including Middle Eastern, Asian and African nations), the median who are very concerned is 42%. Nevertheless, roughly half or more of people across all the countries surveyed say they are at least somewhat concerned about Islamic extremism in their country.

People in Israel (37% very concerned) and Russia (23%) are less concerned about extremism than those in many of the other countries surveyed. But this has not always been the case in Russia, where great concern about extremism is down 12 percentage points since 2011 and 29 points since 2005, when the survey was fielded just months after 334 hostages died in a school in Beslan that was taken over by Chechen rebels.

In European countries, older people, women and those on the right of the ideological spectrum are more concerned about Islamic extremism than the young, men and those on the left.

More: