Canada came second in the new ranking of best countries in the world
Canada earned second place in a ranking of best countries in the world published Wednesday by U.S. News & World Report.
The rankings, developed by the global marketing and communications services company WPP and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, are drawn from a survey of more than 17,000 people from around the world, who scored nations based on a set of 73 attributes.
The country attributes were then grouped into the following 10 thematic subrankings: adventure, agility, cultural influence, entrepreneurship, heritage, movers, open for business, power, quality of life and social purpose.
To generate the overall scores, subranking results were weighted based on various factors including each country’s gross domestic product. Generally, subrankings that were more correlated with wealth were weighted more heavily.
For the second year in a row, Switzerland topped the global rankings. The small European nation ranked first in the “open for business” subranking, and was also among the top 10 countries in four other categories.
Canada, meanwhile, displaced Germany as the second best country in the world, moving up from third place in 2022.
Survey respondents ranked Canada highly for its agility — “to be efficient in its actions, adopt and accept modern solutions, and progress to meet changing circumstances.”
Canada was also among the top 10 countries in the subrankings for entrepreneurship, quality of life and social purpose.
“Canada’s expansive wilderness to the north plays a large role in Canadian identity, as does the country’s reputation of welcoming immigrants,” the rankings concluded.
Sweden rounded out the top three countries in the overall ranking. The Scandinavian nation came in first in the subrankings for social purpose and quality of life, while also finishing in the top 10 for three other categories.
Australia and the U.S. placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the rankings.
The survey was conducted between March 17 and June 12, with respondents drawn from 36 countries, “broadly representative of the global population.”
Not every country in the world was included in the rankings. To be narrowed down to a statistically manageable group, countries had to meet four criteria: rank in the top 100 countries in any year between 2017 and 2021 in terms of gross domestic product, foreign direct investment and international tourism, as determined by World Bank data, and rank in the top 150 countries according to the United Nation’s Human Development Index for any year between 2017 and 2021.
The U.S. News Best Countries ranking is now in its eighth year. The publisher noted the results are “based largely on perception.”
Respondents were asked to complete the survey via an online link. No margin of error was provided.
Top 25 countries in the world
1. Switzerland
2. Canada
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. United States
6. Japan
7. Germany
8. New Zealand
9. United Kingdom
10. Netherlands
11. Norway
12. France
13. Denmark
14. Finland
15. Italy
16. Singapore
17. Spain
18. Belgium
19. United Arab Emirates
20. China
21. South Korea
22. Austria
23. Ireland
24. Luxembourg
25. Portugal
This article was reported by The Star
