Ukraine dropped 21 places and ranked 75 out of 153 countries in the 2018 Good Country Index, published on Jan. 24.
Russia’s ongoing war against the country as well as its own poor performance on climate and environment appear to be significant factors in it scoring so badly in some categories.
While dropping 21 places compared to last year, Ukraine also ranked number one in the field of science and technology for a second consecutive year.
The Good Country Index is an annual ranking, published from 2014, by the London based non-governmental organization Good Country.
According to them, the ranking measures the significance of each country to the planet’s collective good by comparing nation states, using 35 different parameters in 7 categories, provided by the United Nations, UNICEF and other international organizations.
The data is also divided by the country’s gross domestic product.
“Because we live in a massively interconnected, interdependent age, an age of advanced globalisation, it also made a lot of sense to look at how countries affect each other and affect the whole system,” said Simon Anholt, co-founder of the project, when talking about the idea behind the ranking.
Ukraine for the second time in a row earned the top spot in the science and technology category.
The country’s rank in the category is based on five markers: the number of foreign students according to UNESCO, the amount of published and exported scientific journals and newspapers according to the United Nation’s International Trade Center.
The number of articles published in international journals, number of Nobel Prize Laureates and the number of international patents, according to the World International Patent Organization, also helped Ukraine secure its top spot.
While being the frontrunner in science and technology, Ukraine underperformed in categories such as health and wellbeing (ranked 103), international peace and security (ranked 131) and planet and climate (rank 133).
Good Country points out that Ukraine’s results were dragged down due to Russia’s war against the country as well as the number of internally displaced persons and refugees according to United Nation’s High Commission for Refugees.
Ukraine also scored badly on renewable energy and a lack of participation in humanitarian projects such as food aid and donations to international health organizations.
The top ten countries overall, according to the 2018 Good Country Index, starting from first place, are Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, France, Spain and Canada.
