Of 1,000 national participants, 67 percent were in favour of taking in refugees from the war-torn country, while only nine percent were against.
Ireland, Spain and Germany were also among the countries most open to welcoming fleeing Syrians.
On the other hand, the majority of respondents in the United Kindgom, Slovakia, Romania, France and the Czech Republic showed the least compassion for Syrian refugees among Europeans.
Overall, three out of four people (76 percent) expressed a great deal, a fair amount or a small amount of sympathy for Syrian refugees coming to their country.
The findings also reveal that, on average, only three out of 10 (30 percent) respondents of working age identified national security as one of their top three concerns about refugees coming to their country.
Economic pressures, such as the cost to the government of hosting refugees (30 percent) and additional pressure on the national welfare system (30 percent) were cited as top
concerns.
Refugees are fleeing danger in record numbers and public sympathy for them in Europe is striking.
At a time when toxic rhetoric has found its way into the political mainstream, there is a clear call here for governments to combine compassion with competence in responding to the refugee crisis. Security, economic well-being and fair treatment of refugees can and should go together.
Ireland ranked most sympathetic of all countries surveyed; with an average of 87 percent of respondents having sympathy, closely followed by Spain (86 percent), Germany (84 percent) and Portugal (84 percent).
The UN estimates that 1.19 million of the most vulnerable refugees around the world are in need of resettlement to industrialised third countries.
Currently low- and middle-income countries host 86 percent of the world’s refugees, while Europe hosts just eight percent.
The IRC is calling for European leaders to take in 50 percent of all Syrian refugees and 25 percent of all refugees globally, which is 540,000 over five years, or 108,000 per year. This number has been calculated by taking into account the population and GDP of each country.
In the IRC’s sixty years of experience resettling refugees in the United States, the organisation has found that 85 percent of new arrivals managed by them are in employment within 180 days, actively contributing to the local economy.
The survey polled approximately 12,000 people across 12 countries in Europe.
In related news, Portugal is to welcome a total of 600 refugees up until the end of the year.
According to government officials, these refugees will join the 585 who have already been given shelter in the country since the start of the refugee crisis.
To date, the majority of refugees re-homed in Portugal are from Syria.
Aid workers say the greatest problem being faced in adapting to their new country is the difficulty they have in learning Portuguese, which in turn makes it harder for them to find employment.