The single greatest priority for young people in the Middle East remains living in a democratic country, according to the findings of the 2010 ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey, the biggest study of its kind of the region’s largest demographic. This finding echoes the results of the 2009 survey — conducted well over a year before the start of recent regional unrest — which similarly identified the yearning for greater political participation as the defining characteristic of Arab youth.

This is the key finding of the 10-country survey unveiled Wednesday in Dubai and New York. Conducted by leading international polling firm Penn Schoen Berland (PSB), the Third Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey included 2,000 face-to-face interviews with Arab nationals and Arab expatriates between the ages of 18-24 in the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), as well as in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. These interviews were conducted in December 2010 and January 2011.

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