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Feelings thermometer
About the author
Ryan Neelam
Ryan Neelam was Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Lowy Institute. He led the flagship annual Lowy Institute Poll, was project director for the Global Diplomacy Index, and wrote about climate diplomacy and multilateral policy.
The Lowy Institute ‘feelings thermometer’ measures Australians’ warmth towards other countries and territories on a scale of 0° (coldest feelings) to 100° (warmest feelings), with each score reflecting the mean of responses.
New Zealand has topped the feelings thermometer again at a very warm 85° in 2025, a position it has held in all of the 15 years it has been included. Australians continue to feel very warmly towards Japan (76°), the United Kingdom (75°), and Singapore (72°), and warmly towards Germany (68°), South Korea, and Taiwan (both at 63°) — all steady on their previous readings. Australians remain relatively warm towards Ukraine (61°).
Feelings remain steady towards Indonesia (56°), and are lukewarm towards South Africa (52°, down seven degrees since its last reading in 2010) and India (51°), down three degrees from last year.
The largest shift this year, however, was a nine-degree drop in warmth towards the United States (50°), accompanying the sharp decline in trust towards the country. This continues a cooling towards the United States since 2022 (65°), and is in stark contrast to its warmest reading on the thermometer in 2015 (73°).
Meanwhile, cool feelings towards China (37°) thawed by three degrees from last year, a small improvement from a low of 32° four years ago, which was registered during China’s diplomatic rupture with Australia. Before 2019, China consistently registered above 50° on the feelings thermometer.
Australian attitudes towards Iran (27°) and Russia (22°) remain frosty, while Australians reserve their iciest feelings for North Korea (16°).
