Canada ranked top nation on immigration and investment

For the first time ever, Canada has moved up to second place on the Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index 2021, thanks to top marks in immigration and investment, and other categories.

The Nation Brands Index measures the reputations of nations around the world. This year, they measured 60 nations and derived their survey results from 60,000 interviews. In previous years, they measured results of 50 countries through 20,000 interviews.

The nations were ranked based on their perceived quality in six categories: exports, governance, culture, people, tourism, and investment and immigration.

Canada got first place in immigration and investment, which measures perceptions of a nation’s ability to attract immigrants, foreign workers, and international students. It also evaluates how each country’s quality of life and business environment is perceived.

Canada also scored top marks for governance, which gauges perceptions of national government competency and fairness, as well as its perceived commitment to global issues like peace, justice, poverty, and the environment.

Thirdly, Canada held the top spot for the people category, which examines the reputation of a nation’s populace for competence, openness, friendliness, and tolerance.

Canada maintained steady rankings in the remaining three categories: exports, which measures opinions of a country’s products and services; tourism, which measures the level of interest in visiting a country; and culture, which assesses global opinions of a nation’s heritage and appreciation for its contemporary culture including art and sport.

Over the past couple of years, Canada has been in the top three overall on the Nation Brands Index. This year, however, Canada came second place after Germany, which has maintained the top spot for the past five years. Germany’s strengths are in its exports, immigration and investment, governance, and culture.

Canada overtook the U.K., which held the second-place spot in 2020. This year, the U.K. dropped to fifth place overall. It maintains a positive overall ranking for perceptions of its culture, exports, and immigration and investment. Its weaknesses are in global perceptions of its people, and governance.