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Feelings thermometerFeelings thermometer
About the author
Natasha Kassam
Natasha Kassam was Director of the Lowy Institute's Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program from 2019 to 2022, directing the annual Lowy Institute Poll and researching China’s politics, Taiwan, and Australia-China relations.
Canada leads the feelings thermometer in 2020, which measures Australians’ perceptions about countries, territories, and institutions on a scale of 0° (coldest feelings) to 100° (warmest feelings). Canada receives a very warm 79°, a five degree fall from 2018. Warmth towards the United Kingdom, despite its departure from the European Union, still sits steady at 74°, although eight degrees lower than in 2018. Feelings towards the European Union have cooled somewhat, down six degrees from 2019, although they remain at a warm 60°.
This year the highest-ranked countries in the region are Japan and Fiji, at a very warm 69° and 68° respectively. Feelings towards the United States in 2020 sit at 62°, steadying after a cooling trend since 2015. This result is not significantly different to the results in 2006 and 2007, the coolest results for the United States in the history of Lowy Institute polling. The United Nations registers a warmish 61° on the thermometer, steady from 2016.
After a year of democracy protests, feelings towards Hong Kong have cooled by five degrees to 58° in 2020. Views of Taiwan have remained stable at 57°. Feelings towards China have fallen sharply again this year. After a nine-degree fall in 2019, China has registered a further ten-degree drop to 39° in 2020. Both of these consecutive falls in sentiment represent the greatest single-year declines in the history of the Lowy Institute Poll feelings thermometer.
Feelings towards Vietnam and Papua New Guinea are consistent at 58° and 56°. Australian sentiment towards South Korea remains warm at 57°, although five degrees cooler than in 2018. Both India and Indonesia receive lukewarm results of 52° and 51°.
Russia continues to receive a cool response from the Australian public at 42°, 13 degrees lower than its scores in 2008 and 2010. Australian sentiment towards the Palestinian Territories is at 39°, eight degrees cooler than feelings towards Israel (47°). Iran and Saudi Arabia were at the bottom of the feelings thermometer in 2020, both receiving very cool results of 33° and 32°.
