The land of the free — and the home of the brave face.
America has a lot of things going for it: Unrivaled military strength, extensive technological innovation and a persistent entrepreneurial spirit are just a few.
But ahead of the 250th anniversary of its independence, the US is showing its age. America only placed 18th in US News & World Report’s new rankings of the best countries due to “notable weaknesses in key dimensions of national well-being.”
The US earned No. 1 in culture and tourism and No. 2 in economic development, but garnered a disappointing 33rd place in health, 39th place in infrastructure and 41st place in civic health.
“Challenges related to public health outcomes, social cohesion and public safety in particular pull down the country’s overall standing,” US News wrote in its explanation of the rankings, released Thursday.
“In a framework that rewards balance across multiple dimensions, the United States’ combination of world-leading strengths and persistent structural gaps results in a ranking that is strong, but not top-tier.”
Health, civic health and infrastructure were given a total weight of 40.7% in the ratings, while culture and economic development represented 22.6%.
Governance, opportunity and natural environment rounded out the rest of the categories.
The US placed 17th in governance, 15th in opportunity and a whopping 72nd in natural environment. We were dinged for “high emissions and resource intensity.”
The health metric, meanwhile, takes into account life expectancy, mortality, longevity, healthcare and public health preparedness. The US life expectancy was 79 years old in 2024.
Public health preparedness was measured by vaccination rates, the ability to conduct medical research and the outcomes of past epidemics.
US News noted that large nations like the US, UK and Germany have “challenges of scale and complexity in pandemic response.”
The US recorded over 1.2 million deaths related to Covid-19.
The top countries for health are Iceland, Norway and Denmark, respectively. Iceland’s life expectancy was 83 years old in 2024.
The best country overall was determined to be Switzerland, followed by Denmark and Sweden.
US News praised Switzerland and Denmark’s “consistent performance across all eight categories” and Sweden’s high marks in governance (No. 4), opportunity (No. 3) and natural environment (No. 7).
In the 2024 rankings, the last calculated by US News, Switzerland earned the designation of best country, followed by Japan and the US.
There was no health category that year. The US placed 22nd in quality of life, though. That rating considered the countries’ public health systems.
