South Africa’s global reputation is falling
The Reputation Institute has released its 2015 ranking of the world’s most reputable countries – showing that South Africa is beginning to slide.
The 2015 ranking is based on the response of 48,000 people from the G8 nations.
It looks at the world’s 55 largest economies, and gauges reputational power through targeted online surveys among the general population.
It takes into account direct experiences and perceptions towards the countries covered, as well as third party data from the Global Peace Index, and Corruption Perception Index.
In 2015, Canada is ranked as the world’s most reputable country, having climbed from 2nd position in 2014. Last year’s top country, Switzerland, dropped down into fourth spot.
Notably, no country was deemed to have an “excellent” reputation, with scores below 80.
Similarly, only 12 of the top 20 countries had a “good” reputation, with the other eight nations having a “moderate” reputation.
South Africa was deemed to have a weak reputation, ranking 40th overall. However the report noted that the country experienced one of the largest drops in reputation, having sunk 3.2% since 2014.
This was on par with Russia (52nd) and second worst to Qatar (43rd) which lost 7.4% on the index.
South Africa was ranked 32nd in 2014, thus slipping 8 spots.
Top 25 countries by reputation
| # | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada | 78.1 |
| 2 | Norway | 77.1 |
| 3 | Sweden | 76.6 |
| 4 | Switzerland | 76.4 |
| 5 | Australia | 76.3 |
| 6 | Finland | 75.1 |
| 7 | New Zealand | 75.0 |
| 8 | Denmark | 74.5 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 73.7 |
| 10 | Belgium | 72.3 |
| 11 | Ireland | 72.0 |
| 12 | Austria | 71.2 |
| 13 | United Kingdom | 69.5 |
| 14 | Italy | 69.4 |
| 15 | Germany | 69.0 |
| 16 | Japan | 69.0 |
| 17 | Spain | 67.8 |
| 18 | Portugal | 64.4 |
| 19 | France | 64.4 |
| 20 | Singapore | 61.1 |
| 21 | Thailand | 57.7 |
| 22 | United States | 57.0 |
| 23 | Poland | 56.8 |
| 24 | Czech Republic | 56.5 |
| 25 | Taiwan | 56.2 |
| 40 | South Africa | 49.7 |
What is interesting to note is that South Africans are incredibly hard on themselves, according to the RepTrak.
The group noted a massive gap between internal and external reputation in South Africa, where locals tend to be 11% more critical of themselves than outsiders are.
Perception gap
Conversely, Russia, China, India and the USA are all less critical of their own country than other nations.
When mapped out across all measured indicators, South Africa is closely aligned with being an enjoyable place live, having a beautiful country and friendly people.
However, the country is far removed from factors such as education, business, technology, international brands, ethics, efficiency, effective governance and safety.
More on South Africa
South Africa is one of the most violent and unsafe countries in the world
Loading ...