Ireland is no longer the “goodest” country worldwide, losing the title to Sweden this year.
Sweden ranked as the country making the most contribution to humanity overall, according to the Good Country Index, which tries to measure how much individual countries work and contribute toward the common good.
The latest edition of the index placed the European country on top, outperforming 162 other nations in a league table that was based on 35 indicators from different sources that include the United Nations and World Bank.
Sweden ranked first in the Prosperity & Equality as well as Health & Wellbeing categories, with its 52nd position in International Peace & Security as its lowest placement. It achieved the 3rd spot for Culture and 7th for Planet & Climate.
Meanwhile, Ireland dropped to 11th overall in the world, surpassed by Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Canada, France, Austria, and New Zealand.
The biannual ranking, according to its creator and British government adviser Simon Anholt, intends to encourage countries to increase their collaboration and cooperation, and go easy on the competition.
“Sweden is a bit of an elite when it comes to thinking about the rest of the world. The European model is one that trained countries to be much more outward looking, and Sweden is that more than the others,” Anholt explained to Swedish paper The Local.
He added that Sweden lost points in the International Peace & Security category mainly due to its arms exports. The year before, however, it came substantially lower at 111th place.
In 2014, the Afghanistan-based International Security Assistance Force — in which Swedish troops took part — ended.
Sweden is “killing fewer people abroad” and thus free to be called the goodest, said Anholt.
On the other end of the list, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea, and Libya emerged as those that contributed least to humanity.
The Good Country Index was created to change how leaders run countries, according to its website.
It aims to show they are responsible not just for their own citizens but “for every man, woman, child, and animal on the planet,” and not just for their own territory but “for the whole of the earth’s surface and the atmosphere above it.”
Photo: Matt Boman | Flickr
