As home to the coolest street in the world, and the 5th coolest neighbourhood on the planet, it should come as no surprise that Canada has nabbed the number two spot on the list of the best countries in the world.
In a recent study conducted by U.S. News & World Report, Canada was ranked as the second best country in the world for 2023.
Is Canada the best country in the world to live?
In collaboration with U.S. News & World Report, the study and methodology used to assess and rank countries were developed through the collaboration of WPP, a global marketing and communications services company, along with its proprietary BAV brand analytics tool, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, specifically led by Professor David Reibstein.
They identified a set of 73 country attributes, which are terms that can be used to describe a country and are relevant to a modern nation's success. These attributes were included in a survey conducted from March 17 to June 12, involving over 17,000 participants from around the world. The participants were asked to evaluate whether they associated specific attributes with particular countries.
Each country received a score for each of the 73 attributes based on the collective responses from the survey. The higher a country was perceived to embody a certain characteristic compared to the average, the higher its attribute score, and vice versa. These scores were then transformed into a standardized scale for comparison purposes.
These attributes were categorized into 10 thematic subrankings that contributed to the overall Best Countries rankings: Adventure, Agility, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship, Heritage, Movers, Open for Business, Power, Quality of Life, and Social Purpose. Subranking scores for each country were determined by averaging the scores that country received in each of the attributes within that specific subranking.
The breakdown is as follows:
Entrepreneurship (14.13%): connected to the rest of the world, educated population, entrepreneurial, innovative, provides easy access to capital, skilled labour force, technological expertise, transparent business practices, well-developed infrastructure, well-developed digital infrastructure, well-developed legal framework.
Quality of Life (14.12%): a good job market, affordable, economically stable, family friendly, income equality, politically stable, safe, well-developed public education system, well-developed public health system.
Agility (14.02%): adaptable, dynamic, modern, progressive, responsive.
Social Purpose (12.83%): cares about human rights, cares about the environment, gender equality, religious freedom, respects property rights, trustworthy, well-distributed political power, racial equity, cares about animal rights, committed to climate goals, committed to social justice.
Movers (11.54%): different, distinctive, dynamic, unique.
Cultural Influence (10.44%): culturally significant in terms of entertainment, fashionable, happy, has an influential culture, has strong consumer brands, modern, prestigious, trendy.
Open for Business (9.43%): cheap manufacturing costs, favourable tax environment, bureaucratic, corrupt, transparent government practices.
Adventure (5.37%): friendly, fun, good for tourism, pleasant climate, scenic, sexy.
Power (5.00%): a leader, economically influential, has strong exports, politically influential, strong international alliances, strong military.
Heritage (3.13%): culturally accessible, has a rich history, has great food, many cultural attractions, many geographical attractions.
Why is Canada the best country to live in?
According to this study, for Entrepreneurship, Canada ranked 5th behind the United States (US), Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK); for Quality of Life, Canada was ranked 3rd behind Sweden and Norway; in the Social Purpose sub-category, Canada ranked 4th behind Sweden, Norway and Finland and Canada ranked 2nd for Agility behind the US.
Canada also ranked among the top seven nations across the world in the following ways:
2nd best country to start a career
4th best country for education
7th best country for studying abroad
7th best country for raising kids
2nd best country for racial equality
6th best country for women
6th best country for comfortable retirement
6th most transparent country
2nd best country to headquarter a corporation
For a more in-depth look at the best countries ranking, visit the website.
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