In This Guide:

International Business: Country rankings

Suggestions for international market research, and finding information about different countries.

Country Rankings

There are many different bodies and institutions that create rankings of countries on many criteria. Below are some that either get mentioned regularly in the media, or are more likely to be useful to people in business.

You can find information about, and links to, many more rankings on Wikipedia's category page
List of International Rankings.

Doing Business - Economy Rankings (World Bank)
10 measures related to ease of doing business ...
Environmental Performance Index
Developed by centers at Yale and Columbia Universities, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, among other bodies.
Freedom House
This well-established organization ranks countries based on levels of freedom of the press, and on political rights and civil liberties available.
Global Competitiveness Report
From the World Economic Forum.
Global Economic Crime Survey (from PwC)
Although this report does not really rank countries per se, nor does it cover all countries (only ~100), it still has a good discussion of perception of various types of white-collar crimes by executives around the world. (E.g. bribery and corruption, cybercrime, antitrust/competition law; procurement fraud, accounting fraud, and more.)
You'll have to download the report, or sections of it.
Global Gender Gap Report
From the World Economic Forum.
Global Hunger Index
From the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Global Peace Index
Measures the state of peace in 162 countries according to 23 indicators that gauge the absence of violence or the fear of violence. From the Institute for Economics & Peace.
Global Terrorism Index
Provides "a detailed analysis of the changing trends in terrorism across 162 countries, over the last 15 years. It investigates the patterns of terrorism by geographic activity, methods of attack, organizations involved and the national economic and political context." From the Institute for Economics & Peace.
Human Development Report (UN)
Rankings by various economic and social indicators (e.g. life expectancy, education, income).
Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN)
Attempts to "assess where the greatest needs and opportunities for improving resilience to climate change exist." Looks at readiness for climate change, and vulnerability to it.
Transparency International
This relatively new NGO (founded in 1993) tries to measure levels of corruption in countries, and from both viewpoints: in which countries are you most likely to need to pay bribes; and from which countries are corporations most likely to be willing to pay bribes.
World Press Freedom Index (from Reporters Without Borders)
"measures the level of freedom of information in nearly 180 countries. It reflects the degree of freedom that journalists, news organizations and netizens enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom."
It has five ratings: good situation, satisfactory situation, noticeable problems, difficult situation, and very serious situation.