Frequently Asked Questions: 2021 Best Countries

What is Best Countries?

Best Countries is a dynamic multimedia portal that includes rankings, interactive data visualization tools, original reporting from journalists and op-eds from international thought leaders. The content leverages data derived from a proprietary survey produced in partnership between U.S. News & World Report, BAV Group, a unit of global marketing communications company VMLY&R, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, specifically professor David J. Reibstein.

The 2021 Best Countries rankings include an overall list of 78 nations numerically ranked as well as 10 subrankings: Agility, Social Purpose, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship, Quality of Life, Power, Heritage, Open for Business, Movers and Adventure.

Additional featured rankings were produced, including the countries that are best to headquarter a corporation, raise a family, receive an education and more.

Why rank countries?

The Best Countries project is designed to help citizens, business leaders and policymakers better understand how their nations and others are perceived on a world scale.

As a growing number of businesses and people have the ability to choose where in the world to invest their time and money, it has become increasingly valuable to understand how a nation's policies, politics and products affect its perceived standing in the world. Perceptions have an impact on the willingness of people to invest in, conduct trade in and travel to nations, thereby having a direct impact on national economies.

The data behind the rankings can help determine the current and future possibilities of economic, political and cultural success in a nation and can be used as a strategic decision-making tool for citizens, business leaders and governments to better evaluate their countries.

The rankings are the centerpiece of the Best Countries portal that combines daily journalism, analyses and commentaries from journalists, as well as experts in government, business and academia to offer a range of perspectives on global issues, including foreign policy, immigration, human rights, security and more.

How is this different from existing country rankings?

Best Countries was produced using a proprietary survey and methodology developed in partnership with U.S. News, BAV Group and the Wharton School. It is the only study of this magnitude to evaluate how perceptions about countries impact a nation's economy.

The Best Countries rankings are based on 76 metrics, making it the most comprehensive global evaluation of nations to date. The breadth and depth of the proprietary survey uncovers exclusive trends and correlations that tell new stories about nations.

The methodology was inspired by BAV's BrandAsset® Valuator Model of Brand Equity, the world's largest database of consumer perceptions of brands and the largest and longest running study of brands, uniquely tying the Best Countries rankings to a proven model of measuring perceptions.

What role did each partner play in producing Best Countries?

U.S. News, the global authority in rankings, news and analysis, designed and hosts the online platform. It leads the daily editorial direction of the website.

BAV Group led market research for 2021 Best Countries, using their proprietary BrandAsset® Valuator, the world's largest brand management tool and database of consumer perceptions of brands.

Marketing professor David Reibstein of Penn's Wharton School oversaw the methodology's development.

All three partners were involved in producing the proprietary survey and methodology used in the global study.

How were the countries ranked?

Seventy-eight nations were ranked using data fielded from a proprietary perception survey developed by U.S. News, BAV Group and the Wharton School.

Perception data were derived from a survey of 17,326 respondents – including members of the general population, informed elites and business decision makers – across 36 countries in four regions: the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The surveys were conducted online.

Respondents were asked to share their perceptions of 78 nations in terms of specific country characteristics, or attributes. These attributes were scored individually and separated into 10 thematic groupings that had similar trends in survey responses.

The relative importance, or weight, given to each of the 10 subrankings was based on the magnitude of that subranking's correlation with gross domestic product per capita purchasing power and rolled into one overall Best Countries ranking.

See the methodology for more details.

How were the 78 countries chosen?

Collectively, the 78 nations represented in the 2021 Best Countries rankings account for nearly 94% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and represent about three-quarters of the world's population.

These countries were selected based on composite performance in key business, economic and quality of life data. Nations included in the 2021 rankings had to meet four benchmarks within the most recent year for which data are available – either 2018 or 2019:

See the methodology for more details.

Are the rankings objective?

To ensure the objectivity of the ranking methodology, each of the subranking variables was weighted based on its correlation with the GDP per capita purchasing power. Variables with higher correlations to GDP per capita purchasing power were weighted more heavily.

To keep the rankings comparable, the Best Countries ranking only included nations that reached benchmarks on four composite performance rankings: the Top 150 Countries in the U.N.'s Human Development Index, the World Bank's Top 100 countries in terms of foreign direct investment inflows, the World Bank's Top 100 Countries in terms of GDP and the World Bank's top 100 countries in terms of international tourism receipts.

To make the rankings comprehensive, perception data were derived from a survey of more than 17,000 respondents – including the general population, informed elites and business decision makers – across 36 countries in four regions: the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

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, an increase of 11 attributes from previous years to reflect how the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturns and intensified calls for social justice have echoed around the world. 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 – Belgium, Cambodia, El Salvador, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Uruguay and Uzbekistan – were added back into the analysis, while three other countries did not make the cut: Bolivia, Ghana and Luxembourg.

Whom should I email with questions?

For questions about Best Countries, please email pr@usnews.com.