US Ranked Seventh-Best Country: US News & World Report Survey

The U.S. was ranked the seventh-best country in a survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report in collaboration with Y&R’s BAV Consulting and The Wharton School.

The rankings released on Tuesday showed a drop of three spots from the 2016 survey, which had placed the U.S. at No. 4.

The best-country rankings were determined according to nine sub-rankings: "Adventure," "Citizenship," "Cultural Influence," "Entrepreneurship," "Heritage," "Movers," "Open for Business," "Power" and "Quality of Life."

Each sub-ranking had attributes associated with them, (such as “a good job market” under "Quality of Life" and “favorable tax environment” under "Open for Business") for the total of 65 attributes under which countries were evaluated.

The 21,000 participants of the global survey were asked to identify how strongly each of the 65 attributes was related to a country.

The U.S. ranked the lowest under the sub-rankings "Adventure" and "Open for Business," where the country came in 35th in both categories.

Attributes under "Open for Business" showed that most participants think the U.S. has high manufacturing costs and an unfavorable tax environment.

Attribute scores under "Adventure" showed that participants thought the U.S. was not “sexy.”

"Cultural Influence" and "Entrepreneurship" were two of the strongest categories for the U.S., where it ranked third. Participants deemed the U.S. to be “prestigious” and “modern” under Cultural Influence. Many also said the country provides easy access to capital and is entrepreneurial under the Open for Business sub-ranking.

Under the sub-ranking "Power," the U.S. came in first, receiving high scores in attributes such as “strong international alliances” and “economically influential.”

Switzerland, included in the survey for the first time, ranked first. A full list of rankings for the 80 countries included in the survey can be found here.

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