World leaders descend on New York for UNGA - but who really has America's ear?

The U.N. expects 73 heads of state and 45 heads of government, alongside 49 ministers, 11 vice presidents and one crown prince, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters Friday. Member states have already submitted roughly 1,000 requests for bilateral meetings, while 168 events are scheduled during high-level week, according to Dujarric.

Asked Friday to characterize the atmosphere inside U.N. headquarters as the delegations prepare to arrive, Dujarric described it simply as "high stress."

But beneath the speeches, motorcades and closed-door meetings across Manhattan is another competition: nearly every government represented in New York will be trying, in one way or another, to capture the attention of the United States.

"This is their moment to grab a piece of American mindshare for sure," Frank Ahrens, head of BGR Analytics, told Fox News Digital.

A new analysis released ahead of UNGA attempts to measure which countries already have it.

That competition is especially consequential this year.

That combination of military power, diplomatic access and public perception gets at the central question behind BGR's index: what does influence actually mean?

BGR compiled more than 100 indicators, ranging from GDP, population and foreign investment to international students, cultural presence and lobbying activity in Washington.

But one of the most consequential variables in this year's analysis came from a much newer arena: social media.

"We looked at 4.9 trillion pieces of data across an entire year because we know that a social media campaign can really move a country's perception in the U.S.," Ahrens said. "And that was really the big takeaway from this year's index."

Social-media sentiment accounts for 20% of the index, second only to cultural imprint at 24%. Institutional ties and outward orientation each make up 16%, geopolitical nexus accounts for 10%, economic size 8% and lobbying and Washington influence 6%. BGR says its underlying data comes from publicly available sources, primarily the U.N., U.S. government agencies and established research institutions, while its social-media data is supplied by Meltwater.

For smaller countries, the analysis suggests reputation can produce particularly large swings.

Bahrain was the biggest riser, climbing 22 places, from No. 97 in 2024 to No. 75 in 2026. BGR attributed much of that increase to improved U.S.-facing online sentiment and increased visibility tied to Bahrain's election to a rotating U.N. Security Council seat, its Arabian Gulf Cup victory and a USS Nimitz port call.

Georgia moved in the opposite direction, falling 31 positions, from No. 73 to No. 104. BGR said its deteriorating U.S.-facing online sentiment coincided with political unrest and arrests of journalists and opposition leaders.

Ahrens acknowledged that generating attention is not the same as wielding political influence. "Countries that make a lot of noise about themselves do get on the radar, but to stay on the radar, you have to have real accomplishments."

The index attempts to address that distinction by combining sentiment with harder measures such as economic links, institutional rankings, lobbying expenditure and participation in international organizations.

Perhaps BGR's most unusual example of how national perception can change did not come from a president, diplomat or lobbying operation.

It came from a German soccer fan.

BGR calls it the "Freddy Effect," after a German World Cup visitor whose enthusiastic posts about traveling through the United States went viral this summer.

Ahrens said BGR found that positive sentiment toward Germany increased 13% over roughly three weeks during Freddy's rise online. BGR links a substantial part of that increase to the reaction generated by his posts, although the data does not independently establish that he alone caused the change.

"Can you recreate a Freddy? I don't know if you can reverse engineer him to that effect," Ahrens said. "But what it shows you is how authentic communication really breaks through on social media."

It is a lesson that may resonate with delegations arriving in New York this week, where hundreds of leaders will have only a few days to secure meetings, shape headlines and make their country's case.