Canada ranked 4th best country in the world in 2024

Canada has ranked 4th in the updated U.S News country ranking for 2024-achieving an overall indexed score of 941.

Notable performance around scoring factors for quality of life, entrepreneurship, social purpose, and agility helped contribute to the country’s strong ranking.

This year, Switzerland took the top spot with an overall indexed score of 100. The top ten countries for this year’s rankings and their indexed scores are presented below.

Countries   –  2024 Ranking   –    Indexed score 

Switzerland   –   1    –   100.00

Japan   –    2   –    96.6

The United States of America   –   3    –     94.2

Canada    –    4     –       94.1

Australia    –    5    –    92.9 

Sweden   –   6    –    91.7

Germany    –    7    –     90.6

The United Kingdom     –    8     –     87.9

New Zealand     –      9       –      86.0

Denmark      –     10      –      85.2

Canada has placed in the U.S News’ top five best countries for the last four years. Last year Canada placed second in the overall country rankings. Despite continued strong performance, Canada’s ranking drop was largely attributable to dips in “often for business,” “heritage ” and “entrepreneurship” scores; while strong performance increase in “moves. “social purpose,” and “adventure” scores helped the country remain among the top five ranked overall.

How does U.S News rank countries?

The U.S News Ranking assess 73 attributes of each country, based on a collection of survey responses of “engaged citizens”. These attributes were then grouped along 10 themes:

• Movers: Considers to what extent a country is viewed as different, dynamic and unique by survey respondents;
• Quality of life: Incorporates affordability, job market, economic stability, family friendliness, income equality, political stability, safety, education system performance and health system performance scores;
• Entrepreneurship: Incorporates connectedness to the rest of the world, educated and skilled labour force population scores, access to entrepreneurial opportunities, opportunities for innovation, ease of access to capital, presence, development of digital and traditional infrastructure, and development of legal frameworks;
• Agility: Considers the extent to which a country is viewed as adaptable, dynamic, modern, progressive, and responsive by survey respondents;
• Social purpose: Incorporates the extent to which a country cares about human right, animals right, environmental issues, gender equality, religious freedoms, institutions, well-distributed political powers, and racial equity;
• Open for business: Considers the extent to which a country is bureaucratic, corrupt, feature cheap manufacturing costs, a favorable tax environment, and transparent government practices in relation to established businesses opening a branch or office in the country;
• Culture influence: Incorporates considerations around the global cultural significance of a country’s entertainment and culture, in addition to the extent to which a country is viewed as fashionable, modern, trendy, prestigious and as having strong consumer brands;
• Adventure: Considers the extent to which a country is viewed as a leader on the world stage, economically and politically influential, having strong military and international partnerships; and 
• Heritage: Considers the extent to which a country is viewed as being culturally accessible, having a rich history, great food, and cultural and geographical attractions.