1 January 2024

Canada Rated World’s Second Best Country; Switzerland Comes out on Top, Australia Fourth and USA Fifth

A new study rates Canada as the second-best country on earth for 2023, behind only Switzerland.

The study, conducted by global marketing and communications services company WPP and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, looked at 73 country attributes; terms that can be used to describe a country and that are also relevant to the success of a modern nation.

Various attributes and nations were presented in a survey of more than 17,000 people from across the globe from March 17 to June 12. Each country was then scored on each of the 73 country attributes based on a collection of individual survey responses.

As well as an overall ranking, countries were scored on adventure, agility, cultural influence, entrepreneurship, heritage, movers, open for business, power, quality of life and social purpose. They didn’t include “personal safety” as a category, but “safe” was included in the quality of life section.

Switzerland came out on top, as it did in 2022. The neutral European nation came out first in open for business and sixth in both entrepreneurship and quality of life. Overall, it came in with a total score of 100.

Vancouver, B.C. JIM BYERS PHOTO

Canada moved up from number 3 in the 2022 rankings to the silver medal spot for 2023. Canada had an overall score of 99.3 for the year. For individual categories, Canada was number two for agility, number three for quality of life, fourth for social purpose, and fifth for entrepreneurship.

“Canadians pride themselves in encouraging all of their citizens to honor their own cultures,” the study’s authors stated. “The list of accomplished and eclectic Canadian writers and artists is long. Joni Mitchell, Avril Lavigne and Drake are just a few of the Canadians who have made an impression on modern music.”

Okay, that’s nice. But Avril Lavigne? Really? Who mentions her over Neil Young, Oscar Peterson, Alanis Morissette and (although I’m not a fan) Celine Dion? And, if you’re talking about writers, hello Margaret Atwood!

The number three spot for 2023 went to Sweden, with a total score of 98.9. Sweden was fifth last year. Australia scored 97.6 points and came in fourth, a jump from the seventh spot in 2022.

Taking the fifth spot was the United States, with a total score of 96.4. The U.S. was fourth in the 2022 US News rankings.

In terms of inividual categories, the U.S. finished first in power, agility and entrepreneurship, and third in cultural influence. But it was 23rd in quality of life and a woeful 59th in open for business.