Global powers and world leaders
Trust in global powers
Since US President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, he has upended longstanding assumptions about the United States’ power and place in the world, its involvement in global institutions, and its approach to its allies and partners.
In this context, Australians’ trust in the United States to act responsibly in the world fell by 20 points, with only 36% of the public expressing any level of trust — a new low in two decades of Lowy Institute polling. Correspondingly, almost two-thirds of the public (64%) say they hold ‘not very much’ trust (32%) or no trust ‘at all’ (32%) in the United States to act responsibly.
On this question, trust towards the United States among older Australians fell dramatically (by 30 points for those aged 45 and over) while trust among younger Australians was already relatively low and fell by a smaller margin (by ten points for those aged 18 to 44).
Indicates change in mode: see 2025 Methodology.
Trust in China continued to improve incrementally, rising three points to 20%. In 2022, trust in China reached a record low of 12%. Since then, it has risen marginally each year. Despite this modest recovery, trust in China in 2025 remains relatively low compared to historic levels up until 2018, when 52% said they trusted China to act responsibly. Russia remains the least trusted country on this measure at 11% — a marginal improvement of three points.
Japan has reached a record high of 90%, topping this list five years in a row. The vast majority of Australians also continue to trust the United Kingdom (85%), climbing five points since last year, while France remained steady at 80%.
Indonesia (58%) rose six points, while India remained steady (54%), both countries continuing to elicit middling levels of trust.
Confidence in world leaders
Donald Trump was re-elected as US president and commenced his second term in January. In line with low levels of trust in the United States, only 25% of Australians say they have ‘a lot’ of or ‘some’ confidence in Donald Trump to do the right thing in world affairs. This equals Trump’s lowest reading in 2019, during his first term.
Confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping (16%) has risen by four points, accompanying the slow moderation of distrust in China (page 6). Once again, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (4%) garners the least confidence from Australians, while Russian President Vladimir Putin follows closely behind (8%).
Indonesia’s new president, Prabowo Subianto (28%), commenced his term five points below his predecessor, Joko Widodo, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (35%) remained steady on last year.
New Zealand is now led by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (63%) who, like his two predecessors, elicits the most confidence from Australians of any leader on this list. In fact, Australians had more confidence in Mr Luxon than in either Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (60%) or then Opposition leader Peter Dutton (41%) prior to the federal election.
French President Emmanuel Macron also garners strong confidence (61%), as does Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (60%).
Feelings thermometer
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°).
Feelings towards other nations
Please rate your feelings towards some countries and territories, with one hundred meaning a very warm, favourable feeling, zero meaning a very cold, unfavourable feeling, and fifty meaning not particularly warm or cold. You can use any number from zero to one hundred: the higher the number the more favourable your feelings are towards that country or territory. If you have no opinion or have never heard of that country or territory, please say so.
In 2006, this question asked respondents about their feelings towards ‘countries and peoples’. From 2007 to 2018, this question asked respondents about their feelings towards ‘countries’. Until 2015, this question asked respondents about ‘Great Britain’, and from 2015 to 2019, respondents were asked about ‘United Kingdom (Great Britain)’. Until 2019, this question asked respondents about ‘Myanmar/Burma’. Until 2023, this question asked respondents about ‘East Timor’.