Canada has been ranked the 4th best country in the world in the latest U.S. News rankings for 2024, achieving an overall indexed score of 94.1. The ranking reflects Canada’s strong performance in several key areas, including quality of life, entrepreneurship, social purpose, and adaptability.
This year, Switzerland claimed the top spot with a perfect score of 100, followed by Japan and the United States. Canada, which has consistently placed in the top five for the past four years, experienced a slight dip from last year’s second-place finish, attributed to declines in areas like “open for business,” “heritage,” and “entrepreneurship.” However, increases in categories like “social purpose,” “movers,” and “adventure” helped maintain its high ranking.
The U.S. News rankings are based on 73 attributes across 10 themes, such as quality of life, entrepreneurship, cultural influence, and social purpose. Canada ranked particularly high in categories such as social purpose (#3) and agility (#2), but scored lower in areas like movers (#43) and heritage (#30).
Canada also performed well in other U.S. News rankings, securing 2nd place among the best countries to headquarter a corporation, 4th place for education systems, and 5th place for racial equity and perceived transparency. These strong performances underscore Canada’s position as a leading nation in various global metrics, contributing to its high ranking in the 2024 list.