U.S. News, an American media company, recently published its’ eighth edition of the Best Countries index in which it ranked 87 countries around the world according to a set of criteria whose scores were obtained by conducting surveys across 17,000 people around the globe during the period extending between March 17 and June 12, 2023. Here below is a list of the selected criteria along with their respective weights in the index:

-       Entrepreneurship (14.13% weight): Connected to the world, educated population, skilled labor force, technological expertise and well developed infrastructure

-       Quality of Life (14.12% weight): economic stability, developed public education and public health systems, political stability, affordable & safe

-       Agility (14.02% weight): modern and progressive

-       Social Purpose (12.83% weight): respects human right, property rights, animal rights, committed to climate goals & social justice

-       Movers (11.54% weight): different and unique

-       Cultural Influence (10.44% weight): has strong customer brands, modern, prestigious and trendy

-       Open for Business (9.43% weight): low manufacturing costs, favorable tax environment and transparent government practices

-       Adventure (5.37% weight): good for tourism and friendly climate

-       Power (5.00% weight): economically & politically influential, robust exports, has solid international alliances and a strong military.

-       Heritage (3.13% weight): has cultural and geographical attractions

As far as results are concerned, Switzerland maintained its first position in the Best Countries Index with a score of 100.0 followed by Canada (score of 99.3), Sweden (score of 98.9), Australia (score of 97.6), and the United States of America (score of 96.4). Regionally, Gulf Cooperation Council dominated the rankings, with the U.A.E. coming in first and 19^th globally with a score of 76.8, followed by Qatar (26^th globally with a score 58.7) and the K.S.A. (31^st globally with a score of 43.6).

Lebanon, ranked third to last globally (85^th rank) and second to last regionally (amongst 10 regional countries) in the aforementioned index, with a score of 1.0, bettering Iran (last globally with a score of 0) and trailing Algeria (79^th globally with a score of 4.9). Lebanon’s best performance was in the open for business category with a score of 34.1 and an international rank of 81, whilst its’ worst performance was in the social purpose category (score of 1.2 and a rank of 84).