How the Index is constructed

The Global Soft Power Index is based on the most comprehensive and wide-ranging research programme of its kind, with responses gathered from over 110,000 people across more than 100 countries, surveying perceptions of 121 nation brands from around the world.

In the first two waves in 2020 and 2021, two surveys were conducted:

General Public: a survey of public opinion covering residents of over 100 countries representing all continents and regions of the world
Specialist Audiences: the views of global decision-makers and influencers – representing categories identified as likely targets and conduits for soft power: business leaders, market analysts, politicians, academics, think-tanks and NGOs, and journalists

With both surveys yielding similar results, it was decided to focus on the General Public sample for 2022 and 2023, enabling us to increase the sample size significantly, and in particular the robustness of results within individual fieldwork markets. Thus, the 2023 Index is based solely on perceptions among the General Public.

The Global Soft Power Index incorporates a broad range of measures, which in combination provide a balanced and holistic assessment of nations’ presence, reputation, and impact on the world stage. These include:

Familiarity: nation brands which people know, and have mental availability of, have greater soft power
Reputation: is this country deemed to have a strong and positive reputation globally?
Influence: the degree to which a nation is seen to have influence in the respondent’s country as well as on the world stage

Performance on the core 8 Soft Power Pillars (Business & Trade, Governance, International Relations, Culture & Heritage, Media & Communication, Education & Science, People & Values, Sustainable Future)

This year, we have removed the COVID-19 Response pillar as the salience of pandemic perceptions declines. Instead, we have enhanced our measurement of environmental sustainability by introducing three new attributes alongside ‘acts to protect the environment’ to form a separate Sustainable Future pillar. A new attribute ‘invests in space exploration’ has also been added under the Education & Science pillar.

The weightings given to each measure within the Index were based on a combination of expert opinion, coming from an extensive literature review and expert consultation process, and statistical analysis assessing the degree to which pillar performance correlates with Influence and Reputation. The introduction of new attributes has not affected the weightings of the existing ones to ensure year-on-year comparability.

Nation brands ranked in the Index

121 nation brands were included in the research programme, including Zimbabwe for the first time. Key nations whose global reputations are of greatest interest to Index users and subscribers (e.g. China, US, Brazil) were prioritised as ‘Tier 1’ (see map). These 32 Tier 1 countries have larger sample sizes rating them.

Fieldwork and sampling

An online survey was conducted among a sample of 111,364 adults aged 18-75, across 101 countries. As such, our sample is representative of the online population of each country. In developing markets with relatively low internet access (below 85% across all age groups), this skews the sample somewhat towards younger people with higher education, income, and connectivity – but we deem this acceptable, as it is these groups in the population who are most likely to be affected by soft power and have some familiarity with other nations.

Fieldwork Method

Two fieldwork approaches were employed. Both have been shown to provide good representations of public opinion.

In more developed markets, established online research panels were used. Panel selection and management were conducted by Savanta.

Where online panel coverage is weak, we partnered with Bolt Insight, adopting a relatively new and cutting-edge approach based on buying advertising space via digital marketing exchanges. Such an approach can be applied even to very challenging markets like Iraq and Venezuela.

Quotas were applied by age, gender, and (in panel markets) region – in line with the online population profiles of each country.

Note that no fieldwork was conducted in Russia for the 2023 Index, as in our view a reliable survey of Russian public opinion on these topics cannot be undertaken. Instead, the results from 2022 were used in our model.

Regional and global total scores were calculated by combining country results using the following weights:

50% – the ‘one country one vote’ rule, accounting for the sovereignty and differences between the multitude of nations around the world
50% – the size of the online population aged 18-75, with in effect the opinions of the residents of large countries, e.g. China, receiving a much greater weight than those of smaller countries, e.g. Estonia

Questionnaire

Each respondent was shown a random sub-set of nation brands – drawn from the 121 included in the Index – and asked about their Familiarity. For countries about which the respondent had some knowledge, we obtained a detailed assessment of reputation, influence, and performance on 35 characteristics representing the core 8 Soft Power Pillars.

Across each country sample, the 121 nation brands were rotated to ensure that all nations were assessed globally. Surveys were conducted in the major languages of each country, totalling 54 languages globally.

Market Coverage

Over 111,000 interviews were conducted across the 101 countries surveyed. This included most of the 121 nations included for assessment of the Global Soft Power Index, with the exception of countries which are either very small (e.g. Luxembourg, Iceland) or where online surveys are challenging (e.g. Cuba, Iran).

The sample size in each country was a minimum of 500 in all markets, and above 750 in most cases.

In key markets, much larger samples were obtained – above 2,000 in each of: India (3,713), China (3,549), USA (3,538), Germany (3,034), France (3,015), UK (3,012), Nigeria (2,491), and Kenya (2,480).