A ranking published by US News has placed the Netherlands as the ninth-best country in the world, beating France, Italy, and Spain.

U.S. News Overall Best Countries 2020

For the fifth year in a row U.S. News, an American media company that publishes news, opinion, consumer advice, rankings and analysis, has published their rankings for the best countries. The rankings are based on global perceptions of each country - each country was given a rating for 65 different attributes, with the score based on responses to a survey completed by 20.000 people across the globe.

The 65 attributes were grouped into nine subcategories that determined a country’s overall ranking. The subcategories are: 

• Adventure
• Citizenship
• Cultural Influence
• Entrepreneurship
• Heritage
• Movers (predicting a country’s future growth)
• Open for Business
• Power
• Quality of Life

The Netherlands as one of the world’s best countries

Since U.S. News’ first report was published in 2016, the Netherlands has been consistently placed in the top 11. In 2019, the country ranked eleventh, but 2020 has seen the Netherlands rise two spots to secure ninth place.

The Netherlands received an overall score of 88,2 out of 100. The categories in which it performed particularly well include citizenship (96,4) and quality of life (88,7). However, the Netherlands performed relatively poorly in the power category (17,1), the movers category (27,8) and the heritage category (37,1). 

The citizenship category looks at a country’s religious freedom (97,2 out of 100), gender quality (97,6) and concern for the environment and human rights (84,7 and 100 respectively), as well as a handful of other topics. Quality of life examines other aspects of life in the Netherlands, including income equality (81,2), the (public) healthcare system (92,8), the general safety (91,2) and the country’s political and economic equality (94,2 and 92 respectively). 

The top 15 best countries 2020

Keen to find out how your home country performed? Take a look at the rankings for the top 15 countries around the world below:

1. Switzerland
2. Canada
3. Japan
4. Germany
5. Australia 
6. United Kingdom 
7. United States
8. Sweden
9. The Netherlands
10. Norway
11. New Zealand
12. France
13. Denmark
14. Finland
15. China

To see the full rankings and breakdowns for each country, visit the U.S. News website.