The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the most widely-used measures of customer satisfaction around the world, but different countries have different cultural contexts that make direct comparisons of scores challenging. Our research team at SurveyMonkey fielded a study to understand which countries tend to have higher NPS scores—and why. Explore all the results in this interactive dashboard or scroll down to read more.
How we asked about Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS), a widely-recognized customer loyalty and satisfaction metric, is often used by organizations to track the health of their brand or product. Asking a simple question of “How likely is it that you would recommend this brand to a friend or colleague?”, with answer options ranging from “0 - not likely at all” to “10 - extremely likely”, respondents are categorized into three groups: Detractors (those who answer between 0-6), Passives (7-8), and Promoters (9-10). Net Promoter score is then calculated by subtracting the total percentage of Detractors from Promoters.
We identify differences in NPS across 9 countries and uncover the primary factors that influence NPS in each market through a key driver analysis (KDA). We first asked respondents about their most recent purchase before introducing the Net Promoter Score question. Given potential differences in NPS across categories and industries, our goal was to measure a Net Promoter Score that represented a diverse range of consumers and their purchases within each country, from food and grocery to travel and transportation. This approach allows us to avoid measuring Net Promoter Scores confined to a specific industry, product, or service.
Net Promoter Scores are highest in Brazil, lowest in Japan
Across 9 markets spanning the globe, consumers in Brazil and India are more likely to be classified as Promoters than those in any other country. Nearly three in four (71%) consumers in Brazil provided ratings of ‘9’ or ‘10’ for their likelihood of recommending the brand of their most recent purchase to a friend or colleague, while India has 62% of consumers providing the highest two ratings. All other countries, however, have less than half of consumers classified as Promoters.
| Promoters | Passives | Detractors | Net Promoter Score | |
| Brazil | 71% | 21% | 9% | 62 |
| India | 62% | 27% | 11% | 51 |
| Australia | 44% | 43% | 13% | 30 |
| United States | 49% | 32% | 19% | 30 |
| United Kingdom | 45% | 38% | 17% | 28 |
| Canada | 42% | 40% | 18% | 24 |
| France | 36% | 44% | 20% | 16 |
| Netherlands | 24% | 55% | 22% | 2 |
| Japan | 11% | 26% | 63% | -52 |
- Brazil has the highest Net Promoter Score (62), followed by India (51)
- Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom have lower but nearly identical Net Promoter scores (30, 30, and 28, respectively).
- Canada and France trail, with NPS of 24 and 16, respectively
- The Netherlands and Japan fall well behind all other countries, with Net Promoter Scores of 2 and -52, respectively
While determinants of NPS vary across markets, quality and ease of use are the leading drivers of NPS across most countries
| Net Promoter Score key driver analysis | |||||||||
| US | Canada | Brazil | UK | France | Netherlands | Japan | India | Australia | |
| Quality | 0.63 | 0.54 | 0.62 | 0.34 | 0.28 | 0.33 | 0.31 | 0.18 | 0.36 |
| Ease of use | 0.33 | 0.04 | 0.40 | 0.56 | 0.38 | 0.28 | * | 0.38 | 0.12 |
| Personalization | 0.21 | 0.26 | 0.18 | 0.12 | 0.32 | 0.25 | 0.16 | 0.18 | * |
| Design | 0.15 | * | 0.22 | 0.04 | 0.18 | 0.06 | 0.09 | * | 0.42 |
| Purchase experience | 0.09 | 0.13 | 0.32 | * | 0.37 | 0.03 | 0.27 | * | * |
| Customer service | 0.09 | 0.16 | 0.08 | 0.07 | * | 0.06 | 0.09 | 0.30 | 0.13 |
| Brand values | 0.03 | * | * | 0.08 | * | 0.17 | 0.13 | * | * |
| Innovation | 0.02 | 0.34 | * | 0.45 | * | 0.09 | 0.67 | * | 0.17 |
| Affordability | * | * | 0.14 | * | 0.16 | * | 0.19 | 0.29 | 0.09 |
| * excluded from model | |||||||||
Quality is a leading driver of Net Promoter Scores, according to a key driver analysis (KDA) conducted across 9 countries across the globe.
- Quality ranks as the top driver in the US, Canada, Brazil, and the Netherlands, and among the top 4 in the UK, France, Australia, Japan, and India
- Ease of use also plays a substantial role in driving NPS across multiple countries, ranking first in the UK, France and India, and second in the US, Brazil, and the Netherlands.
- Brand values fail to register as a meaningful driver of NPS in any country.
Not just NPS: consumer perceptions and expectations toward brands also differ across countries
Consumers also exhibit differences in how they relate and interact with brands, with those in Brazil and India more than twice as likely than consumers from all other markets to follow brands they like on media or provide feedback or reviews about their purchases. Less than one in three (30%) consumers in Japan do not share about their purchases or brand interactions on social media, online, or with anyone they know, compared with 10% of consumers in the US, the UK, and France, and 1% in Brazil and India.
Thresholds for consumer expectations differ between countries: consumers in Brazil are much more likely to say that brands always deserve a perfect score, compared with those who believe a brand never deserves the highest score (14% vs 1%).
- The Netherlands and Japan are especially tough markets: in each of those countries more consumers say brands never deserve the highest score or rating than say brands always deserve the highest score (8% vs. 5% and 17% vs. 3%, respectively).
Read more about our polling methodology here.
Click through all the results in the interactive toplines below:
