{"id":113618,"date":"2016-02-22T18:21:50","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T16:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=113618"},"modified":"2016-02-22T17:30:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T15:30:09","slug":"the-best-and-worst-countries-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/113618\/the-best-and-worst-countries-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The best and worst countries in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa has been ranked as Africa’s best country, and the 31st best in the world, according to a new survey by USNews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ranking was determined by assessing 65 attributes in 60 countries, which were then put forward in a survey to 16,000 people across the globe.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Each country was scored on the categories based on the surveys and then ranked, weighted by the IMF’s purchasing power parity data, and country brand value.<\/p>\n

South Africa ranked top on the African continent, above Morocco (35th), Egypt (39th), Tunisia (47th) and Nigeria (57th).<\/p>\n

The country scored highest in the Movers category, for being distinctive and different as a nation and having unique and dynamic people.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, however, South Africa ranked poorest for its quality of life – zero-rated for safety, and rated poorly for its education, healthcare, income equality and economic stability.<\/p>\n

South Africa was also marked down for its low trustworthiness score (pointing to corruption) and its political power, which is not well-distributed.<\/p>\n

Overall, South Africa scored 2.3 out of 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Germany was the top-ranked country, with an overall score of 10. This was followed by Canada (10), the UK (9.8), the USA (9.7) and Sweden (9.7).<\/p>\n

At the bottom of the list, Algeria ranked 60th with a score of 0. Ukraine (0.1), Iran (0.2), Nigeria (0.3) and Pakistan (0.4) round out the bottom 5.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\nScore<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nGermany<\/td>\n10.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nCanada<\/td>\n10.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nUK<\/td>\n9.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nUSA<\/td>\n9.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nSweden<\/td>\n9.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nAustralia<\/td>\n9.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nJapan<\/td>\n9.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\n9.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nNetherlands<\/td>\n8.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nDenmark<\/td>\n8.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
31<\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/td>\n2.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

These were the best performers in each sub-category:<\/p>\n