{"id":656945,"date":"2023-01-28T13:00:36","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=656945"},"modified":"2023-01-27T16:19:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T14:19:49","slug":"the-best-countries-in-the-world-and-where-south-africa-fits-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/656945\/the-best-countries-in-the-world-and-where-south-africa-fits-in\/","title":{"rendered":"The best countries in the world – and where South Africa fits in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Switzerland held its position as the number one country in the world, according to the 2022 Best Countries report, a rankings and analysis project by US News & World Report, Y&R’s BAV Group and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The report<\/a> ranks 85 countries across a range of criteria, from economic influence, open for business, and quality of life \u2013 capturing how nations are perceived on a global scale.<\/p>\n

Switzerland ranked among the top in quality of life, open for business, green living, and starting a career.<\/p>\n

Quality of life measures a country’s broad access to food, housing, quality education, health care and employment, while open for business determines how business-friendly a nation is based on the balance between stability and expense.<\/p>\n

Starting a career measures a country’s labour market using seven attributes: a good job market, economically stable, entrepreneurial, income equality, innovation, living, and progressiveness.<\/p>\n

Switzerland is followed by Germany, which moved up one spot to No. 2, replacing Canada, which fell to No. 3 as countries with more progressive social and environmental policies dominate the overall rankings.<\/p>\n

Nordic nations \u2013 Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland \u2013 rank in the top 15 overall. Sweden is the No. 1 country for quality of life and social purpose. Social purpose ranks a nation’s human rights, the general environment, and religious freedom.<\/p>\n

Denmark takes the top spot for education and raising children, while Finland ranks at the top for transparency – which ranks nations in five categories: transparent business practices, transparent government practices, well-distributed political power, trustworthiness and corruption.<\/p>\n

Canada shifted one spot to No. 3 from No.2 in 2021. However, it maintained its position in the top three – ranking No.1 in the world for starting a career.<\/p>\n

The US gained two spots to rank No.4 from No.6 in 2021. It gained in two important categories \u2013 ranking No.1 in power, which looks at a country’s ability to shape global economic patterns, and No.2 for entrepreneurship, which evaluates a nation’s ability to spread prosperity to citizens.<\/p>\n

Sweden ranks at No.5, followed by Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), France, and Denmark at No.10.<\/p>\n

Japan scored high marks in entrepreneurship and cultural influence, which measures a country’s art, fashion, entertainment, and easy living.<\/p>\n

Australia scored 3rd in headquartering a corporation – whether a major corporation decides to call a country home – and this depends on trade and tax policies and its contribution to the global economy.<\/p>\n

The UK scored high in study abroad – which accounted for the quality of universities and whether the country is culturally accessible, fun and has many cultural attractions. It also ranked high in power.<\/p>\n

France ranked No.2 in cultural influence and No.4 in heritage \u2013 which quantifies a nation’s distinctive traditions by assessing five attributes: culturally accessible, has a rich history, has great food, many cultural attractions and many geographical attractions.<\/p>\n

The 2022 Best Countries ranking methodology relies on data gathered from a proprietary survey of more than 21,000 business leaders, informed elites and general citizens.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Country<\/strong><\/th>\nRank<\/strong><\/th>\nQuality of Life<\/strong><\/th>\nRaising children<\/strong><\/th>\nStarting a career<\/strong><\/th>\nBusiness<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Switzerland<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Germany<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n12<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Canada<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
United States<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n21<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sweden<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japan<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n39<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Australia<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n11<\/td>\n16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
United Kingdom<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n12<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n32<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
France<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n16<\/td>\n16<\/td>\n34<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Denmark<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

South Africa\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Africa is ranked 42nd out of 85 countries (41 in 2021) \u2013 scoring poorly for quality of life, power, and social purpose.<\/p>\n

However, South Africa’s strengths were noted in heritage, open for business, movers and adventure. Movers measured a country’s preparedness to weather economic challenges, ranking nations based on: difference, distinctiveness, dynamics and uniqueness.<\/p>\n

Adventure measures a country’s level of adventure – based on an equally weighted average of scores from six attributes related to adventure within a country: friendly, fun, good for tourism, pleasant, climate, scenic and sexy.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Read: 106 countries you can travel to visa-free with a South African passport in 2023<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are the top 10 countries to live in, according to the Best Countries report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":657039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-656945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656945"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660305,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656945\/revisions\/660305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}