Independent rankings built from public data — every figure traceable to the body that published it.
Country Index 2026
Nations Inquiry visualizes global data and country rankings to highlight strengths, challenges, and progress to drive informed global change.
01Country Index 2026
174 countries placed on 12 topics, each topic carrying exactly one vote. Choose a continent to see its highest-placed countries. A position here is this site’s own — never a publisher’s rank.
The top 10 of 174 countries placed.
1
of 174 countries placed · Western Europe
Strongest: Economy & Innovation, 2nd of 150
12 of 12 topics with a standing
2joint
of 174 countries placed · Northern Europe
Strongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 8th of 198
12 of 12 topics with a standing
2joint
of 174 countries placed · Western Europe
Strongest: Gender & Equality, 4th of 178
12 of 12 topics with a standing
DenmarkStrongest: Governance & Institutions, 1st
SwedenStrongest: Gender & Equality, 1st
AustriaStrongest: Economy & Innovation, 3rd
GermanyStrongest: Development & Human Capital, 3rd
NorwayStrongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 1st
IcelandStrongest: Gender & Equality, 3rd
FinlandStrongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 6thAfrica: 50 of 55 countries placed. Positions are out of all 174 countries worldwide, not a ranking within the continent.
46joint
of 174 countries placed · Eastern Africa
Strongest: Peace & Security, 13th of 177
12 of 12 topics with a standing
94
of 174 countries placed · Southern Africa
Strongest: Mobility & Connectivity, 45th of 147
12 of 12 topics with a standing
95
of 174 countries placed · Middle Africa
Strongest: Risk & Resilience, 5th of 191
9 of 12 topics with a standing
GhanaStrongest: Peace & Security, 19th
BotswanajointStrongest: Risk & Resilience, 21st
TunisiajointStrongest: Education & Knowledge, 73rd
Côte d’IvoirejointStrongest: Risk & Resilience, 75th
NamibiaStrongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 61st
EgyptStrongest: Mobility & Connectivity, 41st
SenegalStrongest: Governance & Institutions, 52ndAmericas: 31 of 48 countries placed. Positions are out of all 174 countries worldwide, not a ranking within the continent.
20
of 174 countries placed · Northern America
Strongest: Governance & Institutions, 6th of 193
12 of 12 topics with a standing
33
of 174 countries placed · Northern America
Strongest: Education & Knowledge, 2nd of 182
12 of 12 topics with a standing
35
of 174 countries placed · South America
Strongest: Environment & Sustainability, 1st of 161
12 of 12 topics with a standing
Costa RicaStrongest: Peace & Security, 2nd
ChileStrongest: Development & Human Capital, 29th
BrazilStrongest: Governance & Institutions, 58th
BarbadosStrongest: Peace & Security, 4th
PanamaStrongest: Peace & Security, 39th
ArgentinaStrongest: Development & Human Capital, 63rd
Saint LuciaStrongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 52ndAsia: 46 of 52 countries placed. Positions are out of all 174 countries worldwide, not a ranking within the continent.
16
of 174 countries placed · Eastern Asia
Strongest: Education & Knowledge, 1st of 182
12 of 12 topics with a standing
18
of 174 countries placed · Eastern Asia
Strongest: Health & Wellbeing, 5th of 201
11 of 12 topics with a standing
21
of 174 countries placed · South-eastern Asia
Strongest: Mobility & Connectivity, 1st of 147
11 of 12 topics with a standing
CyprusStrongest: Health & Wellbeing, 12th
United Arab EmiratesStrongest: Development & Human Capital, 1st
IsraelStrongest: Health & Wellbeing, 7th
QatarStrongest: Development & Human Capital, 12th
MaldivesStrongest: Health & Wellbeing, 41st
MalaysiaStrongest: Mobility & Connectivity, 5th
ChinaStrongest: Mobility & Connectivity, 4thEurope: 39 of 49 countries placed. Positions are out of all 174 countries worldwide, not a ranking within the continent.
1
of 174 countries placed · Western Europe
Strongest: Economy & Innovation, 2nd of 150
12 of 12 topics with a standing
2joint
of 174 countries placed · Northern Europe
Strongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 8th of 198
12 of 12 topics with a standing
2joint
of 174 countries placed · Western Europe
Strongest: Gender & Equality, 4th of 178
12 of 12 topics with a standing
DenmarkStrongest: Governance & Institutions, 1stSwedenStrongest: Gender & Equality, 1stAustriaStrongest: Economy & Innovation, 3rdGermanyStrongest: Development & Human Capital, 3rdNorwayStrongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 1stIcelandStrongest: Gender & Equality, 3rdFinlandStrongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 6thOceania: 8 of 21 countries placed. Positions are out of all 174 countries worldwide, not a ranking within the continent.
13
of 174 countries placed · Australia and New Zealand
Strongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 7th of 198
12 of 12 topics with a standing
14
of 174 countries placed · Australia and New Zealand
Strongest: Governance & Institutions, 9th of 193
12 of 12 topics with a standing
64
of 174 countries placed · Polynesia
Strongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 33rd of 198
10 of 12 topics with a standing
FijijointStrongest: Peace & Security, 37th
TongaStrongest: Democracy & Civil Liberties, 46th
Solomon IslandsStrongest: Peace & Security, 33rd
VanuatuStrongest: Peace & Security, 17th
Papua New GuineaStrongest: Peace & Security, 63rd02Every placed country
Darker is placed higher. Hover a country for its position, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent and its sub-regions.
55 countries · 50 placed
HighestMauritius46th, joint
48 countries · 31 placed
HighestCanada20th
52 countries · 46 placed
HighestSouth Korea16th
49 countries · 39 placed
HighestSwitzerland1st
21 countries · 8 placed
HighestNew Zealand13th
03The subjects
A standing is never one number with a mystery inside it. These are the topics it is built from — each with the statistics that decide it, and the country currently placed first.
5 keys · 193 countries placed
FirstDenmark
3 keys · 150 countries placed
FirstIceland
4 keys · 182 countries placed
FirstIceland
4 keys · 182 countries placed
FirstSouth Korea
4 keys · 201 countries placed
First
San Marino
3 keys · 194 countries placed
FirstUnited Arab Emirates
3 keys · 161 countries placed
FirstUruguay
3 keys · 178 countries placed
FirstSweden
3 keys · 198 countries placed
FirstNorway
3 keys · 177 countries placed
FirstIceland
3 keys · 191 countries placed
First
Liechtenstein
3 keys · 147 countries placed
FirstSingapore
04The world in records
One country at the extreme of each statistic, read from its newest edition. Where countries tie at the top, no record is named.
Longest life expectancy at birth
86.37
years
Lowest child mortality
1.26
deaths before age five per 1,000 births
Largest share of land under forest
94.45
% of land area
Largest population
1,438,069,596
people
Best connected by container shipping
1,319
on UNCTAD’s connectivity index
Highest human development
0.972
on the 0–1 index
05Latest editions
The biggest moves between each report’s two newest editions, in the publisher’s own ranks. A report whose field of countries changed by more than 5% is left out, because its ranks would no longer be comparable.
Ranks as published by Transparency International in the Corruption Perceptions Index: the 2024 edition (180 countries ranked) → the 2025 edition (182 ranked).
Azerbaijan154 → 130+24
Sri Lanka121 → 107+14
El Salvador130 → 120+10Ranks as published by UNDP Human Development Report Office in the Human Development Index: reference years 2022 (192 countries ranked) → 2023 (193 ranked), both from its 2025 report.
United Arab Emirates23 → 15+8
Guyana95 → 89+6
Andorra37 → 32+5Ranks as published by World Intellectual Property Organization in the Global Innovation Index: the 2024 edition (133 countries ranked) → the 2025 edition (139 ranked).
Bosnia and Herzegovina80 → 92−12
Mongolia67 → 78−11
Bolivia100 → 111−11Ranks as published by Oxford Insights in the Government AI Readiness Index: the 2024 edition (188 countries ranked) → the 2025 edition (195 ranked).
Tanzania139 → 93+46Côte d’Ivoire140 → 95+45
Nepal150 → 106+44
Saint Kitts and Nevis102 → 170−68
Grenada121 → 176−55
Marshall Islands123 → 177−5406Analysis
07Fresh from the source
Newest first. The date is the day the numbers were read from the publisher — a re-import moves a statistic up this list even when its figures did not change.
| Imported | Statistic | Edition | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liner Shipping Connectivity Index | UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) | 2026 | 167 | Economy & Innovation | |
| Primary Completion Rate | UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) | 2025 | 165 | Education & Knowledge | |
| Upper Secondary Completion Rate | UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) | 2025 | 164 | Education & Knowledge | |
| Water Stress | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) | 2023 | 177 | Environment & Sustainability | |
| Agricultural Emissions | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) | 2023 | 198 | Environment & Sustainability | |
| Agriculture Orientation Index | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) | 2024 | 132 | Governance & Institutions |
08Method
What a position means, where the numbers come from, and the questions readers ask most.
41 key statistics from 21 publishers, each stored exactly as it was released.
A country’s reading on each statistic becomes its place among the countries that statistic covers — between 120 and 222 of them — so being measured in a smaller field is no advantage.
The statistics are grouped into 12 topics, and each topic has exactly one vote. The 174 countries with standings on at least 9 topics are given a position.
Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC) · CIVICUS · Ember · European Commission Joint Research Centre, with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee · Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) · Global Footprint Network · Growth Lab at Harvard University · Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV), Ruhr University Bochum · International Labour Organization (ILO) · OECD · Open Data Watch · Oxford Insights · Transparency International · UN DESA Population Division · UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) · UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG) · UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) · UNDP Human Development Report Office · UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg · World Bank Group
The Country Index is Nations Inquiry’s own. It is built from 41 key statistics published by 21 organisations — United Nations agencies, the World Bank and independent research institutes — but none of them produced this ranking or endorses it. Where a publisher prints its own rank for a statistic, that rank is shown separately and credited to the publisher.
How the Country Index is builtA country needs a standing on at least 9 of the 12 topics to be given a position, so that no position rests on a handful of readings. 50 countries have some data but fall short of that. They are listed on the full ranking with how many topics they reach, rather than being placed on a guess, and each still has a profile with every statistic we hold for it.
See the full Country Index 2026From the organisations that publish them. Each statistic is read from its publisher’s own release and stored exactly as published — nothing is rounded on the way in. The 2026 edition uses, for each source, the edition describing 2023–2025. Every table on the site can be traced to its publisher’s release, with the edition, the licence and the date it was imported.
Browse every statisticBecause a score would claim more than the method knows. The Index combines very different measures, and any single number built from them would read like a measurement nobody actually took. A position with its field — “12th of 174” — states exactly what is known: where a country stands relative to the others.
The Country Index is published once a year and named for the year of publication; an edition is kept unchanged once a newer one replaces it. The statistics underneath are updated whenever their publishers release a new edition, and the date each edition was imported is shown with its data.
Yes. The Country Index 2026 is published under CC BY-SA 4.0. Some key inputs are ShareAlike, so this derived ranking carries the same licence. Each underlying statistic keeps its publisher’s own licence, which is shown with its data.
CC BY-SA 4.0One email when a new index edition, dataset or analysis goes up. No more than that.
India
United Kingdom
France
Saudi Arabia
