Rankings - Country by Country
On this page, you can find different country brand rankings and how the information is obtained and analyzed. If there are any other rankings that you feel should be included here, please feel free to write about them in the 'discussion' section. Below you can find descriptions of the rankings included and underneath you can find the rankings for each of these from the past 2 years.
To find different city brand rankings, please go to the Rankings by City
To find out more information about the companies and individuals involved in these rankings, please go to the Experts page.
Contents
- 1 All Country Brand Rankings
- 2 Anholt – Gfk Roper Nation Brands Index Top 10
- 3 Anholt – The Good Country Index Top 10
- 4 Bloom Consulting – Country Brand Ranking Top 10
- 5 FutureBrand – Country Brand Index Top 10
- 6 FutureBrand – Country Brand Index Latin America Top 10
- 7 East West Communications – Global Index 200
- 8 Portland Communications – The Soft Power 30 Ranking
All Country Brand Rankings
Below is a table of country brand rankings from Simon Anholt, Bloom Consulting, FutureBrand and East West Communications. The information can be sorted by country name or the ranking. You can find past and current rankings for individual countries and any further comments that have been made about them by clicking on the individual country names.
| Position 2014 | Position 2016 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Germany |
 United States
|
| 2 | United States |
Germany
|
| 3 |  United Kingdom |
United Kingdom
|
| 4 |  France |
 Canada
|
| 5 | Canada |
France
|
| 6 |  Japan |
 Italy
|
| 7 | Italy |
Japan
|
| 8 |  Switzerland |
Switzerland
|
| 9 |  Australia |
Australia
|
| 10 |  Sweden |
Sweden
|
Anholt – Gfk Roper Nation Brands Index Methodology
Since 1996, Simon Anholt has been working with governments to help them plan policies, strategies, investments and innovations to lead their country towards an improved profile and reputation. Anholt developed the Nation Brands IndexSM (NBI) in 2005 to measure the image and reputation of the world's nations and track their profiles as they rise or fall.
The variables that are taken into consideration by the Anholt-Gfk Roper ranking are:
1. Exports: This determines the public's image of products and services from each country and the extent to which consumers proactively seek or avoid products from each country of origin.
2. Governance: This measures public opinion of the level of national government competency and fairness. It describes individuals' beliefs about each country's government, as well as the government's perceived commitment to global issues such as democracy, justice, poverty and the environment.
3. Culture and Heritage: This reveals global perceptions of each nation's heritage and the level of appreciation for its contemporary culture, including film, music, art, sport and literature.
4. People: Measures the population's reputation in terms of competence, level of education, openness and friendliness and other qualities, as well as perceived levels of potential hostility and discrimination.
5. Tourism: Captures the level of interest in visiting a country and the draw of natural and man-made tourist attractions.
6. Investment and Immigration: This dimension determines the power to attract people to live, work or study in each country and reveals how people perceive a country’s economic and social situation.
Anholt – The Good Country Index Top 10
| Position 2014 | Position 2016 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ireland |
Sweden
|
| 2 |  Finland |
 Denmark
|
| 3 |  Switzerland |
 Netherlands
|
| 4 | Netherlands |
United Kingdom
|
| 5 |  New Zealand |
Switzerland
|
| 6 | Sweden |
Germany
|
| 7 | United Kingdom |
Finland
|
| 8 |  Norway |
France
|
| 9 | Denmark |
 Austria
|
| 10 |  Belgium |
Canada
|
Anholt – The Good Country Index Methodology
The Good Country Index was developed by Simon Anholt and built by Dr. Robert Govers in order to “start a global discussion about how countries can balance their duty to their citizens with their responsibility to the wider world.”It measures how much a country contributes to the planet and to the human race. [1].
The Good Country Index is based on 7 categories, each one them including different aspects:
1. Science and Technology: international students, journal exports, international publications, Nobel Prizes and patents.
2. Culture: creative good exports, creative services exports, UNESCO, freedom of movement and press freedom.
3. International Peace and Security: peacekeeping troops, dues in arrears to UN peace keeping budgets, international violent conflict, arms exports and internet security.
4. World Order: charity giving, refugees hosted, refugees generated, population growth and UN Treaties signed.
5. Planet and Climate: biocapacity reserve, hazardous waste exports, organic water pollutant emissions, CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gas emissions.
6. Prosperity and Equality: open trading, UN volunteers abroad, fairtrade market size, FDI outflows, development.
7. Health and wellbeing: food aid, pharmaceutical, voluntary excess, humanitarian aid and drug seizures.
Bloom Consulting – Country Brand Ranking Top 10
| Trade | Position 2014 - 15 | Position 2016 - 17 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | USA |
USA
|
| 2 |  China |
United Kingdom
|
| 3 | United Kingdom |
 Brazil
|
| 4 |  Hong Kong |
China
|
| 5 |  Singapore |
Hong Kong
|
| 6 | France |
Canada
|
| 7 | Brazil |
Australia
|
| 8 | Australia |
France
|
| 9 |  India |
India
|
| 10 | Canada |
Singapore
|
| Tourism | Position 2014 - 15 | Position 2016 - 17 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | USA |
USA
|
| 2 |  Spain |
 Thailand
|
| 3 | Germany |
Spain
|
| 4 | Hong Kong |
Hong Kong
|
| 5 | France |
Australia
|
| 6 | Thailand |
France
|
| 7 | Australia |
China
|
| 8 |  Macao |
Germany
|
| 9 | China |
United Kingdom
|
| 10 | Italy |
Italy
|
Bloom Consulting – Country Brand Ranking Methodology
Bloom Consulting has conducted the Country Brand Ranking© to answer the fundamental issue at the heart of every country, corporation and soul: how does one become attractive? Luckily, the rationale behind such a question for a nation is quite simple. A country wishes to attract interest in order to create wealth.
The main objectives for creating a country brand strategy rely on five dimensions. Each dimension has a target audience. And each target audience has a specific need:
1. Investment - Investors - Advantage
2. Tourism - Tourists - Experience
3. Talent - Workforce - Lifestyle
4. Prominence - General Public - Admiration
5. Exports - Companies - Uniqueness
Bloom Consulting’s methodology separates the 5 objectives (Investment, Tourism, Talent, Prominence and Exports) and treats them individually, not all together as an umbrella strategy. Therefore, it is possible to derive growth projections and calculations in order to better understand the objective of the overall strategy.
One of the few aspects that all Nation Brand and Place Brand practitioners agree on is that Nation Branding and Place Branding have different purposes. The purposes can vary from expert to expert, practitioner to practitioner. According to Bloom Consulting there are 5 different objectives: Increase of Exports, Attraction of Investment,Tourism and Talent, and Increase of National Prominence - these can be seen in the Bloom Consulting Country, Region and City Branding Brand Wheel (see diagram on the left).
The Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking© is derived from the Bloom Algorithm.
The ranking does not solely try to measure country brand perception. The objective of the ranking is to classify how well each country is doing in terms of branding, that is, to measure how effective their brands are in the most tangible and realistic manner. To classify the effectiveness of each Country Brand, Bloom Consulting analysed 4 key variables for each of the 187 countries featured in the Brand Ranking (see diagram to the left).
Through statistical modelling, Bloom Consulting is able to rank the countries to compare them with one another. The Algorithm takes into consideration each country’s economic level of development. The result is an accurate and objective Brand Ranking based on hard and soft data. Moreover, the Bloom Algorithm takes into consideration a country's performance in Bloom Consulting's rankings from previous years in order to leverage Country Brand equity.
One of the variables included in the Bloom Algorithm is a proprietary tool that was developed by Bloom Consulting - Online Search Demand (OSD ©). This was developed to understand the online behavior of potential tourists and investors. By using the OSD © Tool, Bloom Consulting is able to measure the total global online searches performed specifically for tourism or investment and assess international tourists’ or investors' online behavior and decision making process when selecting a destination. The more online tourism related searches a country has from international tourists or investors, the more appealing it is, regardless of its size or the type of tourism or investment it attracts.
Bloom Consulting and Digital Demand – Digital Country Index
| Tourism | Position 2017 |
|---|---|
| 1 | Spain
|
| 2 | Italy
|
| 3 | France
|
| 4 | United Kingdom
|
| 5 | Japan
|
| 6 | Thailand
|
| 7 | Germany
|
| 8 | Australia
|
| 9 |  Mexico
|
| 10 |  Turkey
|
FutureBrand – Country Brand Index Top 10
| Position 2014 - 15 | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Japan
|
| 2 | Switzerland
|
| 3 | Germany
|
| 4 | Sweden
|
| 5 | Canada
|
| 6 |  Norway
|
| 7 | USA
|
| 8 | Australia
|
| 9 | Denmark
|
| 10 | Austria
|
FutureBrand – Country Brand Index Methodology
The methodology of FutureBrand consists of:
- Quantitative Research: FutureBrand collected quantitative data from 3600 frequent business and leisure travelers and opinion-formers in 18 countries around the world. FutureBrand examined their international experiences and global perspective to understand the situation in the world today and to provide more information for tourists and potential investors.
- Expert Opinions: FutureBrand gathered the opinions of experts in tourism, export, investment and public policy in different cities.
- Co-creative Insights: crowd-sourcing and an online and co-creative community.
Also, FutureBrand uses the proprietary Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM) to determine how key audiences (including residents, investors, tourists and foreign governments) relate to a country brand, from mere awareness to full advocacy. This model offers insights that help FutureBrand assess how well-developed a brand is, as well as key challenges that need to be addressed. The HDM allows for measurements of a country’s relative performance and progress year-to-year. The particular steps are presented below:
1. Awareness: Do key audiences know that the country exists? How top-of-mind is it?
2. Familiarity: How well do people know the country and its offerings?
3. Associations: What qualities come to mind when people think of the country? Here, we look at five association dimensions: Value System, Quality of Life, Good for Business, Heritage and Culture and Tourism.
4. Preference: How highly do audiences esteem the country? Does it resonate?
5. Consideration: Is the country considered for a visit? What about for investment or to acquire or consume its products?
6. Decision / Visitation: To what extent do people follow through and visit the country or establish a commercial relation?
7. Advocacy: Do visitors recommend the country to family, friends and colleagues?
FutureBrand – Country Brand Index Latin America Top 10
| Position 2013 | Position 2016 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazil |
Brazil
|
| 2 |  Argentina |
Argentina
|
| 3 |  Costa Rica |
Mexico
|
| 4 |  Chile |
Chile
|
| 5 |  Peru |
Peru
|
| 6 | Mexico |
Costa Rica
|
| 7 |  Uruguay |
 Panama
|
| 8 | Panama |
 Cuba
|
| 9 |  Colombia |
Puerto Rico |
| 10 | Puerto Rico | Uruguay
|
FutureBrand – Country Brand Index Latin America Methodology
East West Communications – Global Index 200
| Position 2014 – 15 | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore
|
| 2 |  Malaysia
|
| 3 |  Kuwait
|
| 4 |  South Korea
|
| 5 | Ireland
|
| 6 | Canada
|
| 7 | Hong Kong
|
| 8 |  Czech Republic
|
| 9 |  United Arab Emirates
|
| 10 |  Qatar
|
East West Communications – The Global Index 200 Methodology
In 2008, East West Communications developed a Global Index based on perceptions: “How is your country viewed by others?”. This Global Index ranks 200 countries and territories and it establishes how they are described in major media. (source: http://www.eastwestcoms.com/global.htm)
The East West Nation Brand Perception Indexes uses a Natural Language Processing text analysis system. (source: http://www.eastwestcoms.com/indexes.htm)
Portland Communications – The Soft Power 30 Ranking
| Position 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom |
France
|
| 2 | Germany |
United Kingdom
|
| 3 | United States |
United States
|
| 4 | France |
Germany
|
| 5 | Canada |
Canada
|
| 6 | Australia |
Japan
|
| 7 | Switzerland |
Switzerland
|
| 8 | Japan |
Australia
|
| 9 | Sweden |
Sweden
|
| 10 | Netherlands |
Netherlands
|
Portland Communications – The Soft Power 30 Ranking Methodology
In July 2015, Portland Communications launched the first “Soft Power” Ranking.
The Soft Power 30 Ranking is based on a composite index that analyses the strength of soft power assets at the disposal of countries. This new ranking is described as “the clearest picture to date” by Professor Joseph Nye, who developed the notion of soft power.
1. Government: measures the commitment to freedom, human rights, democracy and the quality of political institutions
2. Culture: represents the global reach and appeal of nation’s cultural outputs (pop-culture and high culture)
3. Education: establishes the level of human capital in a country, contribution to scholarship and attractiveness to international students
4. Engagement: the strength of a country’s diplomatic network, its contribution to global engagement and development.
5. Enterprise: values the attractiveness of a country’s economic model, business friendliness and capacity for innovation.
6. Digital: determines a country’s digital infrastructure and its capabilities in digital diplomacy
(source: http://softpower30.portland-communications.com/ranking)
