Methodology: How the 2021 Best Countries Were Ranked

Behind a country's wealth and success are the policies that create possibilities, the people that drive the effort and the history that shapes the environment and perspective.

Globalization has expanded a country's presence beyond its physical borders, and the U.S. News Best Countries rankings – now in its sixth year – seek to examine a nation's worth beyond hard metrics.

This year's report and rankings are based on how global perceptions define countries in terms of a number of qualitative characteristics, impressions that have the potential to drive trade, travel and investment and directly affect national economies. The report covers perceptions of 78 nations.

Ranking the Countries

The study and model used to score and rank countries were developed by BAV Group, a unit of global marketing communications company VMLY&R, and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, specifically Professor David Reibstein, in consultation with U.S. News & World Report.

A set of 76 country attributes – terms that can be used to describe a country and that are also relevant to the success of a modern nation – were identified. Attributes by nation were presented in a survey of more than 17,000 people from across the globe. Participants assessed how closely they associated an attribute with a nation.

Each country was scored on each of the 76 country attributes based on a collection of individual survey responses. The more a country was perceived to exemplify a certain characteristic in relation to the average, the higher that country's attribute score and vice versa. These scores were normalized to account for outliers and transformed into a scale that could be compared across the board.

Attributes were grouped into 10 subrankings that rolled into the Best Countries ranking: Adventure, Agility, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship, Heritage, Movers, Open for Business, Power, Social Purpose and Quality of Life. And to reflect a world transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ensuing sharp economic downturn and calls worldwide for social justice and tackling inequality, two new subrankings were introduced: Agility and Social Purpose. Two new attributes – survey respondents' views on how adaptable and responsive countries are – were added to existing attributes to help create the Agility subranking. The Social Purpose subranking replaces the previous Citizenship subranking and incorporates four new metrics – racial equity, cares about animal rights, committed to climate goals and committed to social justice – that join the earlier metrics.

These thematic subrankings were formed by grouping country attributes that had similar global trends in survey responses. Subranking scores for each country were determined by averaging the scores that country received in each of the attributes comprising that subranking.

To determine the weight each subranking score had in the overall Best Countries score, each was correlated to 2019 gross domestic product at purchasing power parity per capita – a measure of inclusive prosperity – as reported by the International Monetary Fund. Subrankings that demonstrated a stronger relationship with the wealth category were weighted more heavily, and all weights were standardized to total 100.

The Movers subranking represents a version of BAV's BrandAsset Valuator Model of Brand Building, a metric developed by BAV that is predictive of a country's future growth in terms of gross domestic product at purchasing power parity. Instead of one year of data, it was correlated to projected growth through 2024.

The subrankings, their weights in calculating the overall ranking score and the country attributes factored into each are below. The country attribute scores were equally weighted within each subranking. Subranking weights differ slightly from previous years, as they are tied to more recent gross domestic product data. They may not add up to precisely 100 due to rounding.

Agility (14.18%): adaptable, dynamic, modern, progressive, responsive.

Entrepreneurship (14.16%): connected to the rest of the world, educated population, entrepreneurial, innovative, provides easy access to capital, skilled labor force, technological expertise, transparent business practices, well-developed infrastructure, well-connected digital infrastructure, well-developed legal framework.

Quality of Life (13.88%): a good job market, affordable, economically stable, family friendly, income equality, politically stable, safe, well-developed public education system, well-developed public health system.

Movers (13.87%): different, distinctive, dynamic, unique.

Social Purpose (12.23%): cares about human rights, cares about the environment, gender equality, religious freedom, respects property rights, trustworthy, well-distributed political power, racial equity, cares about animal rights, committed to climate goals, committed to social justice.

Cultural Influence (10.45%): culturally significant in terms of entertainment, fashionable, happy, has an influential culture, has strong consumer brands, modern, prestigious, trendy.

Open for Business (9.42%): cheap manufacturing costs, favorable tax environment, not bureaucratic, not corrupt, transparent government practices.

Power (6.09%): a leader, economically influential, has strong exports, politically influential, strong international alliances, and a strong military.

Adventure (3.79%): friendly, fun, good for tourism, pleasant climate, scenic, sexy.

Heritage (1.93%): culturally accessible, has a rich history, has great food, many cultural attractions, many geographical attractions.

To arrive at a country's rank, we first calculated its standardized scores for each of the 76 country attributes. Each country received 10 subranking scores by averaging its scores for the country attributes grouped into that subranking. A country's overall score reflects the weighted sum of its subranking scores. The subranking and overall scores were rescaled so that the top country in each sub-category received a value of 100, and others were calculated as a proportion of that top score. Scores were ranked in descending order.

Additional lists rank the countries on more specific topics, such as the Best Countries for Women, the Best Countries to Raise Kids, the Best Countries for Green Living and the Best Countries for Education. Groups of relevant country attribute data were used to score and rank countries for these lists, but they do not affect the overall Best Countries score or ranking.

Choosing Survey Participants

To understand how countries are perceived, we endeavored to survey engaged citizens who are broadly representative of the global population, with an emphasis on those who would deem the topic and findings most relevant to their lives.

Self-identification in demographic questions distinguished respondents into three defined groups: informed elites – college-educated individuals who consider themselves middle class or higher and who read or watch the news at least four days a week; business decision-makers – senior leaders in an organization or small business owners who employ others; and general public – adults at least 18 years old who were nationally representative of their country in terms of age and gender.

Individuals who were likely to fit these descriptions were targeted and sent the link to an online survey through Lightspeed GMI, a global market research and data collection firm. We aimed to gather an equal share of responses from each type of citizen.

A total of 17,326 individuals from 36 countries in four regions – the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East & Africa – were surveyed. Of the respondents, 10,068 were informed elites, 4,919 were business decision-makers and 5,817 were considered general public. Some respondents were considered both informed elites and business decision-makers.

Regardless of demographics or participant type, each individual's responses weighed equally in the results.

Data Source: About the Survey

Survey participants were given a random subset of countries and country attributes to consider. The combinations were presented in a grid form where participants were prompted to check off the characteristics they associated with each country. If a participant indicated that they were not familiar with a country, it was removed from their survey.

Each participant considered about half of the country attributes for about a third of the countries. In this way, each attribute and country pair was reviewed at least 380 times by each of the three types of survey participants in each of the four regions. The more times an attribute-country pair was checked off in the grid, the higher the attribute score was for that country.

In addition to considering countries in terms of attributes, each survey participant was asked to respond to a set of questions that gauge perceptions of the state of the world today on a variety of topics including the economy, the environment, leadership and technology.

A set of standard demographic questions helped to screen for global diversity and equal weight among participant groups.

Choosing the Countries to Rank

We narrowed the world's nations down to a statistically manageable group by comparing the performance of countries in a number of key business, economic and quality-of-life indicators.

The 78 countries in the 2021 Best Countries rankings had to meet four criteria within the most recent year for which data are available specific to each benchmark to be included in the study:

Those that did not reach all four of these benchmarks and those that did not report these statistics were not included. Reflective of global trends captured in the most recently available benchmark data, three countries that were ranked last year failed to meet all four benchmarks this year and have therefore dropped out of the rankings: Bolivia, Ghana and Luxembourg. Similarly, eight countries have been added back into the analysis: Belgium, Cambodia, El Salvador, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Uruguay and Uzbekistan.
Collectively, the 78 countries in the report account for about 94% of global gross domestic product and represent about three-quarters of the world's population. They span the globe, covering Africa, Asia, Central America, Eurasia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Oceania and South America.

Best Countries first launched in 2016 based on a model of a country's brand evaluation created by BAV Consulting former CEO John Gerzema and Professor David Reibstein, tested by former BAV Group Senior Vice President Anna Blender and validated by WPP Senior Advisor David Sable.

Methodology FAQ

What's different about this year's Best Countries report?

The Best Countries rankings are based largely on perception, and countries are assessed on the same set of 76 country attributes each year. However, the four benchmarks used to determine the set of countries that are assessed each year are driven by hard data. Incorporating the most recently available data for these benchmarks – gross domestic product, foreign direct investment inflows, international tourism receipts and the U.N.'s Human Development Index – changes the set of countries that meet the four benchmarks needed to be included in the analysis annually. This year, eight countries were added back into the analysis, while three other countries did not make the cut.

Some of the country attributes reflect more unfavorable aspects of a country. Could high scores on these attributes help raise a country's score or rank?

Scores for the negative country attributes – bureaucratic and corrupt – were inverted when calculated into the subranking and overall scores. In this way, the countries that were the most closely associated with these attributes performed worse.

Were there ties?

No, scores were calculated in relation to each other in a way that did not allow for ties.

Could survey participants answer about their country of residence or citizenship?

Yes. Survey participants could answer about any country that was randomly assigned to them as long as they indicated that they were familiar with that country.

The survey refers to 76 country attributes, but there are not that many listed.

Eight country attributes were not included in any of the subrankings and therefore do not factor into the overall Best Countries score or rank. These data may be used in additional analysis.

This methodology mentions a group of 78 countries and a group of 36 countries. What's the difference?

Seventy-eight countries were reviewed in a survey to create these rankings. People from 36 countries answered that survey. In many cases, countries overlapped, but the survey was fielded in some countries that were not ranked and vice versa.

Why are a few rankings missing some countries?

In the Best Countries to Study Abroad, Best Countries to Invest In and Best Countries to Start a Career, we thought it was best to compare survey responses between two types of participants. Countries with low initial scores were excluded from the list as the comparison would create misleading results. Neither of these lists affects the overall Best Countries scores or ranking.

Where can I learn more about the study and the model?

See the answers to some frequently asked questions here, and contact pr@usnews.com to reach U.S. News. Our partners advise governments, corporations and nongovernmental organizations on nation branding, including bespoke country analysis and other reports. Professor David Reibstein can be reached at reibstein@wharton.upenn.edu. For more information see www.bavgroup.com.