Like the majestic Alps that rise high above its landscape, Switzerland has once again summited the U.S. News & World Report Best Countries for 2023.
Itās the sixth time that the Central European nation has grabbed the top spot in the eight years the rankings have been around, including last year.
āSwitzerland has been a perennial and a winner in this particular assessment,ā Wharton marketing professor , who helped create the rankings, told Wharton Business Daily. āThey are economically stable, theyāve got great education, and itās one of the top countries people say they would like to live in.ā
Canada comes in as a close second, moving up from third place last year. Sweden, Australia and the United States round out the top five, respectively. Despite the high marks of these countries, itās hard to beat Switzerland, which also landed perfect scores for being āopen for businessā and offering āa comfortable retirement.ā
āSwitzerland is very high in terms of quality of life and entrepreneurship. Itās just a really stable and safe country,ā Reibstein said.
The professor produces the rankings in partnership with U.S. News & World Report and WPP, a global marketing and communications services company. The 2023 list measures perceptions about 87 nations chosen because they contribute most to the worldās GDP. More than 17,000 people around the world were asked to evaluate the countries based on 73 attributes ranging from political stability to racial equity to health consciousness. One third of the survey respondents were business leaders, one third were college-educated individuals who were middle class or higher and one-third were from the general population.
More than just interesting trivia, the list has become a sort of competition for many countries because it relies on scientific data analysis. Reibstein said heās frequently contacted by country representatives who ask what their nations can do to improve their overall rank.
āThis has an impact on tourism, on foreign direct investment and on foreign trade,ā said Reibstein. āThose are the three major components of the GDP of a country, and these factors are indicative of how much people are willing to visit a country or how much they are willing to do business with a country.ā
The nations of North America
The United States dropped from fourth to fifth place this year and has been hovering around the same spot since the rankings began in 2016. The exception was its of eighth place in 2018. Reibstein attributed that slide to fallout from the contentious presidential election of Donald Trump, which changed global perceptions about the US.
This year, the US hit the highest marks for agility, entrepreneurship and power, but it ranked 23rd for quality of life and a shockingly low 59th for being open for business. āThatās primarily based on the cost of labor,ā Reibstein said. āPeople donāt want to move their manufacturing to the United States because the cost of labor is really high.ā
Canada fared much better on those sub-rankings and achieved an overall score of 99.3, which is very close to Switzerlandās perfect 100. āCanada is No. 2 for totally different reasons than the United States,ā Reibstein said. āTheyāre perceived to have a great quality of life and also a very strong social purpose. Even though the countries are right next to each other and located in North America, they are perceived as very, very different, and what they bring to the table is obviously very different.ā
Mexico ranked 33rd overall, the same as last year. While it received high numbers for adventure, heritage and cultural influence, it fared poorly along business rankings.
France, Germany and the UK
Reibstein noted two European nations that have been struggling to climb up the list: the and .
The UK ranked third when the list premiered, and it has steadily gone down. Itās No. 9 this year. Reibstein pinpointed the likely cause as the turmoil around Brexit and political leadership. The country is on its fourth prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in eight years.
France has fallen out of the top 10 for the first time. It landed this year at No. 12, behind . āFrance has really taken a dive downward,ā Reibstein said. āSome of that is because of all the [political] strife thatās been happening in the country and terrorist acts that have happened there over the years.ā
The professor also noted which was No. 1 when the rankings premiered and has bounced around the top 10 since then. āSome of that has been changing leadership, some of that has been taking in [immigrants],ā he said. āTheyāre down right now at No. 7, which is the lowest they have been in the eight years of the study.ā
Chinaās power
slipped from No. 17 last year to No. 20 this year, but it ranked second behind the US in power, a reflection of its strong political and economic influence in the world.
āThereās probably no country for which there is greater divergence of perceptions than China,ā Reibstein said. āThere are some people that totally admire China, some that detest some of the practices of China and almost universally thereās fear of China. Part of that fear is the power that they have.ā
But Chinaās massive economy is , with capital investments generating more debt than growth and a slump in the property sector. āIām really interested to see what happens in next yearās rankings, when we see some of the downturn in the economy and how that affects things,ā he said.
India Is a āRising Starā
is inching up slowly, from No. 31 last year to No. 30 this year. Even though it hasnāt cracked the top 10, Reibstein said heās keeping an eye on the country. India doesnāt score well on social purpose, but it ranked fifth as a mover.
āPeople believe India is a country to invest in, and a country they believe is going to be a rising star,ā he said. āIf you want to bet on development in any country, India is the one that a lot of people put their money behind.ā
The top 10 were, in order, , , , , the , , , , the and the
[ first published this piece.]
The views expressed in this article are the authorās own and do not necessarily reflect 51³Ō¹Ļās editorial policy.
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