A ranking published by US News has placed the Netherlands as the tenth-best country in the world, dropping one place from last year but still beating the likes of Denmark, Singapore, and Spain.

U.S. News Best Countries Ranking 2021

For the sixth 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. And for the sixth consecutive year, the Netherlands has managed to secure a spot in the top 11.

Basing their rankings on global perceptions of each country, U.S. News gave all 78 countries featured in a study a score for 76 different attributes. Each score was based on the 20.000 international responses to their survey. The 76 attributes were grouped into 10 subcategories - one more than last year, as Citizenship was removed and two new categories were added to reflect the coronavirus pandemic and global climate:

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

2020 vs 2021 for the Netherlands: Lower ranking but higher score

The worst ranking the Netherlands has ever achieved is eleventh place, but last year the lowlands managed to rise up into ninth. This year, New Zealand rising from eleventh to seventh knocked the Netherlands down a peg.  

Interestingly, the country received an overall score of 88,3 out of 100, 0,1 point higher than the country’s score in 2020. Similarly to last year, the Netherlands scored particularly well when it came to Quality of Life (88,3), as well as Social Purpose - the category that now incorporates the attributes that previously fell under Citizenship (93,1).

However, the Netherlands once again scored poorly in the Power and Movers categories (17,2 and 27,4 respectively), as well as the Heritage category (34,3). 

The top 15 countries of 2021

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

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