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Research Programs
Polling, research and analysis of foreign policy trends since 2005
To inform the debate on Australian foreign policy, the Lowy Institute has sought the views of the Australian public since 2005. The annual Lowy Institute Poll is the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program’s flagship product. The Program has also conducted polls in important neighbouring countries and surveyed diaspora communities in Australia.
The Lowy Institute Poll is the leading tracking survey on Australian foreign policy, providing a reliable vehicle for understanding Australian attitudes towards a wide range of foreign policy issues, while being independent and methodologically rigorous.
Over the course of the past two decades, the Poll has uncovered significant shifts in public sentiment, including towards our most important neighbours and partners. It has tracked attitudes on key international issues ranging from climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic to Australia’s relationships with China and the United States.
One of the best ways to explore the data from more than two decades of polling is through our interactive website (Opens in new window). Copies of the previous Lowy Institute polls are available here.
The annual Lowy Institute Poll is entirely funded entirely by the Lowy Institute to ensure its ongoing independence, and its questionnaire and results are thoroughly reviewed by independent consultants. The full dataset is available on the Lowy Institute Poll website, (Opens in new window) and datasets are also deposited with the Australian Social Science Data Archive where they are available free of charge for public scrutiny.
Charles Lyons-Jones is a Research Fellow in the Lowy Institute’s Foreign Policy and Public Opinion Program. He oversees the annual Lowy Institute Poll and the Global Diplomacy Index.
