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Media Release

EMBARGOED UNTIL THURSDAY 24 OCTOBER 2019 5.01AM (GMT+9)

South Korea achieves its highest ever ranking in the 2019 Soft Power
30 index
Meanwhile, Macron’s bold global leadership puts France back on top of the Soft Power 30 as
the United States sinks to fifth and Brexit begins to weigh on Britain.

● South Korea is ranked 19th in this year’s Soft Power 30 index, its best overall rank since the
index was launched in 2015. South Korea is also the only Asian nation to improve its overall
position this year.

● Powered by a resurgent President Emmanuel Macron, and a significant improvement in global

public opinion, France takes the top spot ahead of the UK, Germany, and the United States.

● American soft power continues to erode under President Trump. The US falls to fifth, its lowest
ranking since the annual Soft Power 30 study launched in 2015.

● Brexit finally catches up with Britain, as a year-on-year drop in global public opinion of the UK
pushes Britain down the Soft Power 30 rankings.

● Download the full report at SoftPower30.com

Thursday 24 October: The 2019 edition of The Soft Power 30 launches today in Seoul at the Korea
Foundation’s international conference on public diplomacy. In this year’s report, France jumped to the
top of the rankings, while the United Kingdom and United States, 2nd and 5th respectively, both fell from
their 2018 positions. Germany and Sweden round out the top-five, ranking 3rd and 4th respectively – the
first appearance in the top five for Sweden.

Produced by Portland, the strategic communications consultancy, in partnership with the University of
Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy, The Soft Power 30 is an annual study of comparative
soft power, assessing 30 countries around the world through a composite index that combines objective
metrics across six categories (Culture, Digital, Education, Enterprise, Global Engagement, and
Government) and international polling data.
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The results for the top 10 are below:

2019 2019 2018

Country
Rank Score Rank
1 FRANCE 80.28 2
2 UNITED KINGDOM 79.47 1
3 GERMANY 78.62 3
4 SWEDEN 77.41 8
5 UNITED STATES 77.40 4
6 SWITZERLAND 77.04 7
7 CANADA 75.89 8
8 JAPAN 75.71 5
9 AUSTRALIA 73.16 10
10 NETHERLANDS 72.03 9

Meanwhile, South Korea’s improved performance in 2019 can partly be attributed to a higher
international polling score. South Korea’s foreign policy efforts were viewed more favourably in 2019,
perhaps in recognition of its pursuit of peace talks with North Korea.

Additionally, increased public expenditure on educational institutions and a rise in international students
helped lift South Korea’s standing in the Education sub-index from 15th to 12th position. South Korea also
maintained its top 10 status within the Digital (5th) and Enterprise (9th) sub-indices.

Jonathan McClory, creator of The Soft Power 30, lead author of the report, and Portland’s General
Manager for Asia said:

“The combination of a successful PyeongChang 2018 Olympics and efforts to pursue peace talks
with North Korea have coincided with significant improvement in South Korea’s performance
on the international polling data in this year’s Soft Power 30. It is clear that global public opinion
is favourable of countries that believe in the power of multilateralism, peace-making, and
international collaboration to drive global progress. But there are other ways that South Korea is
able to cement progress and rise higher in our Soft Power 30 rankings. Continued investment in
education, digital infrastructure, and innovation will be crucial, as will showcasing South
Korea’s more diverse contemporary cultural offerings, beyond the K-Pop phenomenon.”

South Korea’s Soft Power 30 ranking from 2015 to 2019:

Year 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

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Overall rank 20 22 21 20 19

Raw score 54.32 51.44 58.40 62.75 63.00

Other key findings from the 2019 Soft Power 30 Index include:

● France’s number one ranking this year is underpinned by long-standing, fundamental soft power
resources that have always kept it in the top five of The Soft Power 30. Chief among those assets
are France’s world-leading diplomatic network, its unrivalled presence in multilateral
organisations, and the wide appeal of French culture. Backed by those foundational assets,
France put in an improved performance in the international polling component of the 2019 Soft
Power 30, which lifted the country into its 1st place finish this year.

● American soft power fell again in 2019, its third year-on-year drop in the overall rankings. In
addition to international polling scores that remain depressed – compared to its 2016 high – the
US returned a significantly weaker performance in the Government category of the index,
resulting in America’s lowest-ever ranking in The Soft Power 30: 5th place.

● Following a surprise 1st place finish last year, the UK has dropped one place, primarily as a result
of a weaker polling performance – showing the unruly and chaotic Brexit process is now
weighing on British soft power.

● Interestingly, Sweden has broken into the top five for the first time, which helped produce the
most Europe-heavy top five to date, with most European countries included in the index showing
an improved year-on-year performance.

● Asian countries had been riding positive momentum for the last four years, but with the
exception of South Korea, which climbed one place to 19th this year, the other three Asian
nations held their 2018 position or fell back.

● China holds its 2018 ranking at 27th, while Russia falls two places to 30th.

Jay Wang, Director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD) and an Associate Professor at the
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism said:

“A nation’s soft power is significant, both politically and economically. Its practices, however,
are being upended by profound and rapid changes in the wider society. Our contributions to this
year’s report really put a focus on how digital platforms and technology are changing, and will
transform, the world of diplomacy and soft power.”

About Portland:
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Media Release

Portland is a strategic communications consultancy working with governments, businesses, foundations,

and non-governmental organisations to shape their stories and communicate them effectively to global
audiences.

http://www.portland-communications.com/, Follow: Facebook, @PortlandComms, LinkedIn.

About the USC Center on Public Diplomacy:

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD) was established in 2003 as a partnership between
the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the School of International Relations at the
University of Southern California. It is a research, analysis and professional education organization
dedicated to furthering the study and practice of global public engagement and cultural relations. For
more information, visit CPD's website at www.uscpublicdiplomacy.org

About The Soft Power 30:

▪ The Soft Power 30 is a ranking of 30 countries around the world, based on a composite index
that measures and compares the resources that account for a country’s soft power. It was first
launched in 2015, and 2019 is the fifth edition of the study;

▪ The index combines both objective data across six categories (Government, Culture, Education,
Global Engagement, Enterprise, and Digital) and international polling across 25 countries,
providing a comprehensive framework for the analysis of soft power;

▪ The Soft Power 30 methodology is marked out by three innovative elements that make it the
clearest picture of global soft power to date:

1. The index is the only study to combine objective data from a range of reputable sources
with subjective data derived from international polling conducted in 25 different
countries that provides coverage of every major region of the world;

2. Over 75 metrics are normalised into comparable data and used to calculate a single
score for each country that allow for an overall ranking of global soft power resources;

3. The index contains a digital and digital diplomacy component, including anonymised
data from Facebook, working with their data-science team to create and collect new
metrics on countries’ ‘digital diplomacy’.