Switzerland, Canada, and UK are considered the best three countries in the world, followed by Germany, Japan, and Sweden, according to the 2017 U.S. News Best Countries Rankings. U.S. fell to 7th in the ranking down from 4th in 2016, as a result of Donald Trump’s election as president, according to U.S. News.

Romania ranks 58th out of the 80 countries included in this year’s ranking. Romania’s neighbors in the ranking are Myanmar (57th) and Tanzania (59th). Of the countries in Romania’s region, Poland ranks best, on 31st, followed by Czech Republic (37th), Hungary (46th), Croatia (49th), Slovenia (53rd). Romania ranks better than Latvia (60th), Bulgaria (63rd), Ukraine (73rd), and Serbia, which closes the ranking at number 80.

The ranking is based on a survey of more than 21,000 people from 36 countries in all regions of the world. Each country was scored on each of the 65 country attributes based on a collection of individual survey responses. Attributes were grouped into nine sub-rankings that rolled into the Best Countries ranking: Adventure, Citizenship, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship, Heritage, Movers, Open for Business, Power, and Quality of Life.

Romania ranks best in the Heritage sub-ranking, at number 37. This sub-ranking analyzes attributes such as: culturally accessible, has a rich history, has great food, many cultural attractions. Romania also ranks 38th in the Citizenship sub-ranking, which analyzes the perception on how the country cares about human rights, environment, gender equality, religious freedom, how it respects property rights, and if it progressive, trustworthy, and has well-distributed political power.

Meanwhile, Romania ranks only 75th in the Power sub-ranking and 76th in the Movers sub-ranking, which quantifies if a country is different, distinctive, dynamic, and unique.

The U.S. is at the top of the Power ranking, followed closely by Russia and China. Canada is first for the Quality of Life, with Sweden and Denmark coming next. Norway is first for Citizenship, Germany is first in the Entrepreneurship sub-ranking while Panama is the most Open for Business. United Arab Emirates leads the Movers ranking, Brazil is the best country to seek Adventure, and Italy has the biggest Cultural Influence and the richest Heritage, the U.S. News survey reveals.

The full rankings can be found here and the methodology is explained here.

editor@romania-insider.com