Global index: Finland is a very Good Country

The Good Country Index measures the extent in which individual countries contribute to the common good of humanity and what they take away from it based on extensive data from the UN, World Bank and other international organisations.

Finland came in fourth out of the 163 countries assessed, a two-spot improvement on last year’s sixth position. The index ranked countries across seven categories: science and technology; culture; international peace and security; world order; planet and climate; prosperity and equality; and health and wellbeing.

Finland’s global contribution to the planet and climate relative to its size was the country’s strongest suit (sixth), while it also landed in the global top 10 in terms of science and technology (seventh), world order (eighth) and prosperity and equality (ninth).

The Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark made up this year’s top three, while Afghanistan ranked lowest in the index.

The Good Country Index was created by independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in 2014 to spur change in the culture of world governance. According to the report, “Most of the world’s problems are really just symptoms of a bigger, underlying problem: that we haven’t yet worked out how to organise ourselves as a single species inhabiting a single planet. This can change.”