UAE has been ranked the best country in the Middle East and 23rd in the world, according to the 2018 Best Countries report, a rankings and analysis project by U.S. News & World Report.

In its third year, the rankings evaluate 80 countries across a range of criteria, from economic influence and power to citizenship and quality of life, to capturing how nations are perceived on a global scale.

A total of 21,117 individuals from 36 countries in four regions - the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and Africa - were surveyed.

Other Middle East countries ranked in the list included Qatar (#35), Turkey (#36), SAudi Arabia (#37), Bahrain (#61) and Oman (#73).

Switzerland held its position as the No. 1 country in the world for the second year, followed by Canada, Germany, UK and Japan capping the top five.

“For the countries that rose to the top of this year’s rankings, it is once again clear that military vigor and economic power are no longer the key determinants to a country’s brand success. The Best Countries rankings continue to show us that just as brands must focus on a wide range of attributes to raise profiles and win over audiences, nations that are multidimensional and that reflect a wider range of qualities, such as innovation and compassion have the brand appeal that propels them on the global stage,” said David Sable, Y&R Global CEO.

To determine the top countries, Y&R's BAV Group and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania developed a model that identified 65 attributes, which were then presented in a survey to more than 21,000 business leaders, elites and general citizens around the world. Participants then assessed how closely they associated an attribute with a nation. - TradeArabia News Service