Asia Power Index
Asia’s economic transformation is reshaping the global distribution of power, with profound implications for war and peace in the twenty-first century.
About the Lowy Institute Asia Power Index
The Asia Power Index, launched by the Lowy Institute in 2018, measures resources and influence to rank the relative power of states in Asia. The project maps out the existing distribution of power as it stands today, and tracks shifts in the balance of power over time.
The Index ranks 27 countries and territories in terms of their capacity to shape their external environment — its scope reaching as far west as Pakistan, as far north as Russia, and as far into the Pacific as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The 2024 edition includes Timor-Leste for the first time, reflecting its growing importance as a result of likely accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in coming years.
The project evaluates international power in Asia through 131 indicators across eight thematic measures: military capability and defence networks, economic capability and relationships, diplomatic and cultural influence, as well as resilience and future resources. More than half the data points draw from original Lowy Institute research, while the rest are aggregated from hundreds of publicly available national and international sources.
Dynamic features — including an interactive map, weightings calculator, network analysis, country comparisons, and drill-down explorations of each indicator across multiple years — establish the Lowy Institute Asia Power Index as an indispensable research tool for the study of power in Asia.
Asia Power Index Team
Susannah Patton is Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute and the Project Lead for the Asia Power Index. Before joining the Lowy Institute, Susannah was a Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre. She previously worked in various Southeast Asia-focused positions in the Australian government. Susannah holds first class honours degrees in law and political science from the Australian National University.
Jack Sato is a data analyst for the Asia Power Index. He joined the Lowy Institute in 2022. He holds a degree in Science/Arts, majoring in Statistics, Chinese and Japanese (minoring in International Relations) from the University of Queensland.
Hervé Lemahieu is Director of Research at the Lowy Institute. In 2018, Hervé developed the Asia Power Index, which is a data-driven assessment that maps the changing distribution of power in the region. Hervé joined from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London where he was Research Associate for Political Economy and Security specialising in Southeast Asia. Hervé has an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford, and an MA in International Relations and Modern History from the University of St Andrews.
Acknowledgements
The Asia Power Index team would like to thank the critical contributions of Joshua Pearson, Clare Caldwell, Ian Bruce and Stephen Hutchings on the 2024 Asia Power Index. Researchers who contributed to previous editions of the Index include Nicholas Bosworth, Bonnie Bley, Olivia Adams, Anthony Bubalo, Harriet Goers, Alyssa Leng, Roland Rajah, Xuyang Dong, and Brody Smith.
The Lowy Institute Asia Power Index is supported by the Lowy Institute’s Engaging Asia Project, which was established with the financial support of the Australian Government.
