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Last updated: October 2026

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Rankings

Rankings

Magna Bureau publishes three separate assessments: National Power for all 195 countries (0–100), Military capability for 195 militaries, and Leadership for 193 heads of government. Each evaluates a different subject using its own criteria. Country scores are comparative assessments, not measurements of a country’s overall quality. Every score carries a plain-language explanation — expand any row to see why.

Frequently asked questions

Which country ranks first in national power?

The United States ranks first in national power at 90.0 out of 100, ahead of China at 88.03. Russia, France, and the United Kingdom round out the top five. All 195 nations are scored across nine components.

How is the national power score calculated?

Each country gets one Power score from 0 to 100, built from 135 indicators grouped into nine components — mass, capability, leverage, conversion, resilience, reach, sovereignty, institutions, trajectory — combined through the Bureau's national-power model.

What is the difference between Power and Leadership scores?

The Power score measures a country's structural power — its capacity to shape events. The Leadership score measures an individual head of government's power, based on executive authority, institutional influence, strategic decision-making, and governing effectiveness.

How often are the rankings updated?

The scores reflect the model run of 3 October 2026. Factbook indicators carry the source-reported year where available. The model stores no observation-date system and treats all vintages as contemporaneous — a disclosed-vintage snapshot.

The rankings measure the prowess of a government, of a nation, or of its leaders. Every eligible head of government is ranked by actual power — president, prime minister or chancellor.

Explore the full rankings hub →

How the ranking is built — read how ratings are determined

Every country gets one Power score from 0 to 100 — built from 135 indicators grouped into nine components (mass, capability, leverage, conversion, resilience, reach, sovereignty, institutions, trajectory), combined through multiplicative operators: the Bureau’s National Power methodology. All 195 countries on Earth are ranked, plus the leaders who actually govern them. Every ranking carries a plain-language explanation — expand any row to see why. Higher means more structural power: the proven capacity to shape events, not just headlines.

Model vintage: the scores and components below are the latest published calculation under the National Power methodology of 2026-10-03. Factbook indicators carry the source-reported year where available (e.g. GDP 2024 est., population 2025 est., public debt sometimes 2013–2023 est.); the model stores no observation-date system and treats all vintages as contemporaneous — a disclosed-vintage snapshot, not point-in-time data.

No single capital is crowned. When two powers contest primacy within the margin of judgment, they share the top rank — the Bureau’s slogan made method.

Data Vintage

Model run: 2026-10-03. The scores on this page are the latest published calculation under the National Power methodology of that date. They are a snapshot, not a live feed.

Source-reported years by indicator category. Each factbook indicator carries the year its source reported. The table below shows the typical vintage for each major category:

Indicator categoryTypical source-reported yearNotes
GDP (nominal and PPP)2024 est.Most countries; some 2023 est.
Population and demographics2025 est.Median age, growth, urbanisation
Public debt2013–2023 est.Varies widely by country; oldest vintages flagged on country pages
Military spending and forces2024 est.SIPRI / IISS reported figures
Trade, reserves, energy2024 est.Exports, imports, reserves, production
Institutional and governance indicators2023–2025Varies by source publication cycle

How differently-dated data is handled. The model stores no observation-date system. It treats all vintages above as contemporaneous — a 2024 GDP figure and a 2025 population figure are combined as if they describe the same moment. This is a disclosed-vintage snapshot, not point-in-time data.

What this means for readers. Do not compare scores across model runs as if they were a time series. A country’s score can change between runs because the underlying data vintage changed, because the model changed, or because the country itself changed. The Bureau does not support point-in-time comparison between snapshots. For the most recent source-reported year on any single indicator, see the country’s factbook page.

Missing data. Where a component has no data for a country, the model applies no adjustment rather than a zero, and the board shows a dash. Missing data is treated as missing, never as zero.

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#1United States
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a global power — still the single heaviest weight in the world, now weighed against a rival that refuses to be weighed down
  • the deepest intelligence apparatus on earth — it knows things before they happen; its rivals are learning the same trick
  • independent launch plus a full orbital constellation — the high ground is literal now, and a piece of it is no longer held alone
  • At $214 billion in tourism receipts, the country's beauty has a balance sheet.
  • FDI inflows of $279 billion: strangers trust this economy with their factories, which is the hardest trust to earn.
  • Megaprojects pipeline of $1.2 trillion — cranes on the horizon are the most honest economic forecast there is.
  • population 338.02 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • infant mortality 5 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 80 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • world-class universities: 110 — empires are remembered for their libraries, not their barracks
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • ranked 3 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them
  • 93.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • stockpiles: deep strategic reserves — food and fuel banked for a crisis — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • domestic political fracture — the republic argues with itself louder than any rival argues with it; allies cannot plan on a capital that changes its mind every four years
  • alliance strain — every tariff threat teaches a partner to build a second option; the allies hedge now
  • hard power flat — treading water — the plates are moving, and this capital stands on the sinking one
  • imperial overextension — hundreds of foreign bases, two oceans of commitments: the bill for primacy arrives in every budget
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At 114.8% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • the weaponized dollar — every sanctions package teaches the world to invoice around it; dedollarization is slow until it isn't
  • population growth 0.5% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • median age 39 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • a statehood history of 250 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the infrastructure deficit — the megaprojects pipeline is real, but the bridges it must cross were built for another century
Donald J. Trump President PWR 6990.00 / 10076.393.241.971.871.196.376.775.444.1
#2China
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a global power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • a top-tier cyber power — the battlefield where wars start before anyone declares them
  • anchor of the BRICS — when the Global South wanted a second table, Beijing built the chairs
  • the Belt and Road network — ports, rails, and cables across five continents: infrastructure as foreign policy
  • no draining foreign wars — while rivals bled treasuries into deserts, Beijing banked ports
  • A sovereign fund of $3.5 trillion: savings that work while the country sleeps.
  • A reserves cushion of 12 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • Economic diversification of 22 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • population 1407.18 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 78 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • civilizational continuity: one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — empires pass, but deep roots steady the state long after the armies march home
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • critical-mineral endowment: rare earths — ~44Mt of reserves and ~70% of world refining — whoever holds the matter of the transition holds a leash on the future
  • ranked 11 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them

What drags it down

  • 5.9% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no collective-defense treaty — no one is legally bound to bleed for this country
  • 2 bloc memberships — diplomatically homeless in a world that negotiates in clubs
  • Tourism receipts of $35 billion — a country the world flies over, not to.
  • At $23,800 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • At $23,800 per worker, the economy throws bodies at problems instead of brains.
  • population growth 0.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • urbanization 64.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • central-bank age of 78 years — young money, young credibility: markets price what the bank has not yet survived
  • rule of law at 45 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • control of corruption at 48 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • export structure: a one-commodity economy — fuel is the budget — prosperity with a single point of failure
  • power-sector carbon intensity 559 gCO2/kWh — a grid this dirty makes every plugged-in device a small smokestack
Xi Jinping President PWR 7288.03 / 10083.175.170.068.467.550.583.363.253.6
#3Russia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a top-tier cyber power — the battlefield where wars start before anyone declares them
  • a permanent UNSC seat — with the veto — the veto: the right to say no to the entire planet, on paper, in public
  • a nuclear arsenal — the ultimate veto, written in warheads instead of words
  • A reserves cushion of 18 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • With 15 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Public debt of 18.5% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • population 140.13 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • civilizational continuity: a deep civilizational inheritance — empires pass, but deep roots steady the state long after the armies march home
  • gas reserves of 38 trillion cubic meters — the fuel that heats rivals' homes and cools their tempers
  • internet penetration at 92.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • rent capture: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • at war — a state at war judges itself on survival first, and everything else is a footnote
  • under multilateral sanctions — its economy negotiates with one hand tied by the world's rulebook
  • 7.8% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • At 6.7%, prices are a moving target — savers lose, speculators win, and nobody plans past the season.
  • Growth trend of 2.7% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • $133 billion — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • population growth 0.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • median age 42 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • control of corruption at 15 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule of law at 18 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • the current constitutional order is 35 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 1.1% of GDP for research — a country that won't pay for ideas will pay dearly for everyone else's
  • only 18.1% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Vladimir Putin President PWR 3284.29 / 10073.962.268.362.463.856.450.049.357.2
#4France
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a permanent UNSC seat — with the veto — the veto: the right to say no to the entire planet, on paper, in public
  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • a nuclear arsenal — membership in the one club nobody joins by invitation, where admission ends every argument
  • At 2.0%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $54,500 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $54,500 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • life expectancy 82 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • fertility 1.9 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • jurisdictions under its legal model: 80 — law is the longest-lived export any civilization produces
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • 94.2% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • carbon intensity of 44 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything
  • ranked 12 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 9.6% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • command of 0 strategic chokepoints — geography gave it nothing to bargain with
  • hard power falling — the tectonic plates move against it — the plates are moving, and this capital stands on the sinking one
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 3 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Public debt of 98.5% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • population growth 0.2% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 42 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • world-class universities: 25 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — collapsed states rebuild buildings faster than they rebuild trust
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • renewables at 24.4% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Emmanuel Macron President PWR 4383.80 / 10070.267.712.572.771.063.260.076.843.4
#5United Kingdom
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a Five-Eyes-class global intelligence apparatus — it knows things before they happen, which is the whole game
  • a permanent UNSC seat — with the veto — the veto: the right to say no to the entire planet, on paper, in public
  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • With 17 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • At $52,500 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $52,500 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • life expectancy 82 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • fertility 1.64 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 1,099 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • 96.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • global innovation rank 5 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 3.6% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • 2 bloc memberships — diplomatically homeless in a world that negotiates in clubs
  • hard power flat — treading water — the plates are moving, and this capital stands on the sinking one
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 138.6% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • population growth 0.4% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • median age 40 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 35 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have tasted collapse govern as if it could happen again
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • a food base of 7 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Andy Burnham Prime Minister PWR 4582.72 / 10067.668.939.571.068.464.758.375.945.5
#6India
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a nuclear arsenal — the ultimate veto, written in warheads instead of words
  • 5500 peacekeepers contributed — it puts its own soldiers between other people's wars and peace
  • active military personnel 1.46 million — a standing army with mass, not just uniforms on a roster
  • Megaprojects pipeline of $1.4 trillion — cranes on the horizon are the most honest economic forecast there is.
  • A growth trend of 7.0%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • GDP at purchasing power of $14.2 trillion — what the money actually buys on the ground, and it buys a great deal.
  • population 1419.32 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • fertility 2 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 30 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • civilizational continuity: one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — empires pass, but deep roots steady the state long after the armies march home
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • strategic reserves: deep strategic reserves — food and fuel banked for a crisis — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them
  • global innovation rank 39 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no collective-defense treaty — when the shooting starts, this capital stands alone by treaty
  • command of 1 strategic chokepoints — geography gave it nothing to bargain with
  • $6 billion — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Foreign direct investment of $28 billion — the world is putting its money everywhere except here.
  • Prosperity per person of $9,800 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • urbanization 36.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 30 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • population growth 0.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • jurisdictions running on its legal model: 5 — its rules govern no one beyond its own borders
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 8 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • central-bank age of 91 years — young money, young credibility: markets price what the bank has not yet survived
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • just 0.7% of GDP for research — a country that won't pay for ideas will pay dearly for everyone else's
  • power-sector carbon intensity 708 gCO2/kWh — a grid this dirty makes every plugged-in device a small smokestack
Narendra Modi Prime Minister PWR 7178.13 / 10078.760.531.856.265.344.261.760.271.7
#7Indonesia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • 2700 peacekeepers contributed — it puts its own soldiers between other people's wars and peace
  • With 16 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Sovereign wealth fund of $900 billion — the nation owns a slice of the future and collects rent on it.
  • Unemployment of 3.3% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • median age 31 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.93 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • population 283.59 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • the energy ledger reads an energy exporter — it sells power to the world, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power
  • critical-mineral endowment: nickel — the world's largest reserves and top producer — whoever holds the matter of the transition holds a leash on the future

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no collective-defense treaty — no one is legally bound to bleed for this country
  • At $22 billion in FDI, global capital has looked at the offer and walked away.
  • FX reserves covering 6 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Prosperity per person of $14,500 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • urbanization 58.6% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • infant mortality 18 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 10 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • control of corruption at 45 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule-of-law percentile of 52 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • renewables at 7.4% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • just 19.3% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Prabowo Subianto President PWR 5573.44 / 10080.860.454.755.850.919.264.048.460.2
#8Australia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a Five-Eyes-class global intelligence apparatus — it knows things before they happen, which is the whole game
  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • Labor productivity of $60,100 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $60,100 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • Unemployment of 4.1% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • life expectancy 83 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • urbanization 86.6% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • control of corruption at 93 on the global percentile — the till is guarded, and everyone in power knows it
  • 97.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • rent capture: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — booms end, but funds compound
  • the energy ledger reads an energy exporter — it sells power to the world, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 0.5% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At 4 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • Growth trend of 1.4% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • population growth 1.6% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • median age 38 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • a statehood history of 125 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • central-bank age of 66 years — young money, young credibility: markets price what the bank has not yet survived
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 20 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • export structure: a one-commodity economy — fuel is the budget — prosperity with a single point of failure
  • just 1.8% of GDP for research — a country that won't pay for ideas will pay dearly for everyone else's
Anthony Albanese Prime Minister PWR 6772.51 / 10074.855.839.569.460.236.058.867.841.4
#9Saudi Arabia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • FX reserves covering 17 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • Megaprojects pipeline of $1.2 trillion — cranes on the horizon are the most honest economic forecast there is.
  • At 1.7%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • median age 32 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.84 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • urbanization 85.0% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • 100.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • oil reserves of 267 billion barrels — the kind of geology that turns finance ministers into diplomats and diplomats into courtiers
  • rent capture: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no collective-defense treaty — when the shooting starts, this capital stands alone by treaty
  • At $26 billion, the postcards are lovely and the tills are empty.
  • Growth trend of 3.2% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • With a nominal GDP of $1.2 trillion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population growth 1.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • infant mortality 11 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • jurisdictions under its legal model: 5 — the world admires many things here, but its laws are not among them
  • a statehood history of 94 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 4 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 2.2% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • only 2.2% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Mohammed bin Salman Crown Prince and Prime Minister PWR 9472.16 / 10074.449.454.264.558.829.057.549.069.7
#10Israel
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a nuclear arsenal — membership in the one club nobody joins by invitation, where admission ends every argument
  • a top-tier cyber power — the battlefield where wars start before anyone declares them
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • FX reserves covering 18 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • Economic diversification of 16 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • At $47,300 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • urbanization 92.9% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • life expectancy 83 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • R&D spending at 5.6% of GDP — money placed on the future's table, where it multiplies
  • ranked 15 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them
  • 87.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 3.1% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • at war — every other ambition waits while the guns decide the schedule
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Growth trend of 1.9% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • At $472 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • population growth 1.6% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 9.40 million — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • world-class universities: 6 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the current constitutional order is 78 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 13.2% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • a food base of 4 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister PWR 5670.80 / 10058.273.119.772.156.632.276.771.543.7
#11Turkey
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.3% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • Labor productivity of $35,300 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $35,300 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • At 33.1% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • fertility 1.88 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 34 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • population 84.63 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • 87.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • global innovation rank 37 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next

What drags it down

  • 1.7% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • At 58.5%, prices are a moving target — savers lose, speculators win, and nobody plans past the season.
  • At 5 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • At 8.5%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • population growth 0.6% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • infant mortality 17 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 5 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 21 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • corruption-control percentile of 42 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 1.4% of GDP for research — a country that won't pay for ideas will pay dearly for everyone else's
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan President PWR 4170.60 / 10073.547.153.859.951.637.644.265.454.6
#12Norway
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 3.4% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • At $91,100 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $91,100 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • A sovereign fund of $2.1 trillion: savings that work while the country sleeps.
  • infant mortality 1 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 82 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • fertility 1.58 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • rule of law at 99 on the global percentile — the strong sign contracts here because they know the rules outlast the rulers
  • internet penetration at 99.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • 98.4% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • 98.2% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market

What drags it down

  • 0.8% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • At 1.6% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • FX reserves covering 6 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At $508 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • population growth 0.6% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • median age 41 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • world-class universities: 3 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — partners here are seasonal, and the seasons change fast
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Jonas Gahr Støre Prime Minister PWR 5469.77 / 10068.723.425.079.866.629.365.076.542.6
#13Qatar
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a US mutual-defense treaty — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • At $110,900 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $110,900 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • Unemployment of 0.2% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • urbanization 99.4% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • fertility 1.9 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 34 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • 100.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • proved gas reserves of 24 trillion cubic meters — leverage measured in export contracts and winter deliveries
  • rent capture: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • With a nominal GDP of $218 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $317 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • At 8 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • population growth 0.6% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • population 2.57 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • a statehood history of 55 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 55 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • renewables at 0.0% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • low-carbon power at 0.2% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani Prime Minister PWR 6169.29 / 10062.464.042.770.951.614.585.060.254.1
#14South Korea
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.3% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Inflation of 2.3% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Labor productivity of $50,400 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $50,400 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • life expectancy 83 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • 4,300 years of unbroken statehood — nations that old do not improvise their survival
  • internet penetration at 97.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • global innovation rank 6 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next
  • 5.2% of GDP devoted to research — nations that fund discovery end up owning it

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 2.2% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • Economic diversification of 6 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • Tourism receipts of $15 billion — a country the world flies over, not to.
  • Growth trend of 1.2% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • population growth 0.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 47 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • fertility 0.68 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 16 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • world-class universities: 14 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • renewables at 6.5% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • only 5 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Lee Jae Myung President PWR 6169.12 / 10063.866.428.269.064.127.069.563.243.2
#15Japan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • 247 diplomatic missions abroad — an embassy is a listening post with a flag, and this one has many
  • a great power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • FX reserves covering 15 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • Inflation of 2.7% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At 2.6% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • life expectancy 85 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 1 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • urbanization 92.0% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 94 — a bureaucracy that works is an empire's quietest weapon
  • ranked 13 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them
  • 87.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • stockpiles: deep strategic reserves — food and fuel banked for a crisis — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • hard power falling — the tectonic plates move against it — the plates are moving, and this capital stands on the sinking one
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 0.6% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • At 215.9% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • median age 50 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • population growth 0.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • jurisdictions running on its legal model: 3 — its rules govern no one beyond its own borders
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 25 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • constitutional stability of 79 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • renewables at 18.6% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Sanae Takaichi Prime Minister PWR 5769.06 / 10063.772.421.569.666.131.073.861.539.7
#16Brazil
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a US mutual-defense treaty — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • FX reserves covering 10 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • GDP at purchasing power of $4.2 trillion — what the money actually buys on the ground, and it buys a great deal.
  • A megaproject pipeline of $350 billion: the country is literally building its next decade.
  • population 221.36 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • urbanization 87.8% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • fertility 1.73 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 204 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • renewable electricity at 80.2% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • low-carbon electricity at 89.8% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • carbon intensity of 103 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • 0.3% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Public debt of 83.0% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • At 2.8% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • population growth 0.6% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • infant mortality 12 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 5 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • a central bank only 62 years old — money here is still learning to trust the people who print it
  • a statehood history of 204 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • proved gas reserves of 1 trillion cubic meters — nothing to burn but ambition, and ambition heats no homes
  • just 1.2% of GDP for research — a country that won't pay for ideas will pay dearly for everyone else's
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President PWR 5868.58 / 10071.444.037.963.058.821.864.562.742.7
#17United Arab Emirates
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 4.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • A sovereign fund of $1.9 trillion: savings that work while the country sleeps.
  • At $68,600 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $68,600 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • infant mortality 4 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • urbanization 87.8% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • life expectancy 79 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 88 — a bureaucracy that works is an empire's quietest weapon
  • 100.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them

What drags it down

  • 0.3% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • At 5 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • At $31 billion in FDI, global capital has looked at the offer and walked away.
  • With a nominal GDP of $537 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.6% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • population 10.09 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 55 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 3 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • constitutional stability of 55 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • renewables at 8.7% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • only 4 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Mohamed bin Zayed President PWR 9368.28 / 10068.839.554.872.452.823.055.853.754.9
#18Canada
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a Five-Eyes-class global intelligence apparatus — it knows things before they happen, which is the whole game
  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • At 2.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $56,700 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $56,700 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • life expectancy 84 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • corruption-control percentile of 94 — graft is the exception here, not the operating system
  • internet penetration at 94.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • proved oil reserves of 170 billion barrels — energy weight you cannot sanction away, only negotiate around
  • global innovation rank 17 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 0.6% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At 7 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • population growth 0.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 42 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • a statehood history of 159 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 22 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • export structure: a one-commodity economy — fuel is the budget — prosperity with a single point of failure
  • rent capture: rents leak — no fund, no cushion — geology pays, but nothing stays
Mark Carney Prime Minister PWR 5967.80 / 10066.859.252.070.460.322.655.072.042.5
#19Malaysia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a regional power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • At 1.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $34,100 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $34,100 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • median age 32 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.73 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 72 — a bureaucracy that works is an empire's quietest weapon
  • 98.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • the energy ledger reads an energy exporter — it sells power to the world, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no collective-defense treaty — no one is legally bound to bleed for this country
  • FX reserves covering 4 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • $45 billion — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Public debt of 64.3% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • population growth 1.0% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • urbanization 78.7% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 5 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • world-class universities: 4 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the current constitutional order is 69 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • R&D spending at 1.0% of GDP — the future is being invented elsewhere and imported at retail price
  • low-carbon power at 19.7% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Anwar Ibrahim Prime Minister PWR 6467.32 / 10070.046.940.959.750.718.661.251.357.3
#20Mexico
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a regional power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • At 2.8% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Inflation of 4.7% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • With 11 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • median age 31 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.85 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • population 130.74 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 216 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • internet penetration at 81.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • ranked 56 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them
  • the energy ledger reads roughly energy-balanced, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no collective-defense treaty — no one is legally bound to bleed for this country
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 3 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Growth trend of 1.0% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • life expectancy 74 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • world-class universities: 3 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • control of corruption at 32 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 42 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • R&D spending at 0.3% of GDP — the future is being invented elsewhere and imported at retail price
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Claudia Sheinbaum President PWR 6667.02 / 10074.744.520.555.855.918.052.550.048.4
#21Germany
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • defense spending at 2.4% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • a great power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • At 2.3%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $62,800 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $62,800 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 81 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • population 84.01 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • corruption-control percentile of 94 — graft is the exception here, not the operating system
  • 94.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • ranked 9 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • arms exports of just 5.6% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At 0.2% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • population growth 0.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 46 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • jurisdictions under its legal model: 40 — the world admires many things here, but its laws are not among them
  • a central bank only 150 years old — money here is still learning to trust the people who print it
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Friedrich Merz Chancellor PWR 5066.96 / 10065.165.012.570.571.023.265.867.241.9
#22Spain
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • At 2.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $48,400 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $48,400 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 83 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 534 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • internet penetration at 95.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • carbon intensity of 146 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything
  • global innovation rank 28 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next

What drags it down

  • 3.0% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Unemployment of 11.4% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • median age 47 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • population growth 0.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • jurisdictions running on its legal model: 20 — its rules govern no one beyond its own borders
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • world-class universities: 14 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 1.5% of GDP for research — a country that won't pay for ideas will pay dearly for everyone else's
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Pedro Sánchez Prime Minister PWR 4966.07 / 10063.648.533.767.065.535.050.067.162.5
#23Iran
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • a serious second-tier cyber actor — it can reach into an adversary's grid without moving a single soldier
  • Public debt of 39.5% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Sovereign wealth fund of $156 billion — the nation owns a slice of the future and collects rent on it.
  • Economic diversification of 10 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • median age 35 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • population 89.18 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • the civilizational record reads one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — and old nations do not need to invent a past; they need only not betray it
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • proved gas reserves of 34 trillion cubic meters — leverage measured in export contracts and winter deliveries
  • oil reserves of 208 billion barrels — the kind of geology that turns finance ministers into diplomats and diplomats into courtiers
  • rent capture: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • 0.4% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • At 32.5%, prices are a moving target — savers lose, speculators win, and nobody plans past the season.
  • Growth trend of 0.1% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • Unemployment of 9.2% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • social cohesion: strained — sanctions and unrest weigh on it — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population growth 0.9% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • urbanization 77.3% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • corruption-control percentile of 18 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 22 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • government effectiveness at 25 — the state cannot pave a road or deliver a letter, and it shows
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 7.9% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • only 6.2% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Masoud Pezeshkian President PWR 3065.89 / 10070.942.870.757.256.017.048.341.549.5
#24Vietnam
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.8% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • Growth trend of 7.6% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Unemployment of 1.5% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • With 13 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • fertility 2.01 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 33 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • population 106.69 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • continuous statehood running 4,000 years unbroken — the institutional equivalent of muscle memory
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • internet penetration at 78.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • global innovation rank 44 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • $5 billion — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $476 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 39.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.9% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 8 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • control of corruption at 42 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule-of-law percentile of 48 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — a crisis away from empty shelves and rationed fuel
Tô Lâm President PWR 5965.50 / 10067.158.943.760.061.118.645.044.762.3
#25New Zealand
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a Five-Eyes-class global intelligence apparatus — the quietest power is the one that reads the other side's mail
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Inflation of 2.9% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Labor productivity of $48,200 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $48,200 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • life expectancy 82 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • fertility 1.84 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • control of corruption at 99 on the global percentile — the till is guarded, and everyone in power knows it
  • internet penetration at 96.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • 85.1% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • power-sector carbon intensity 120 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 3 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • Growth trend of 0.3% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • population growth 0.8% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • population 5.16 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • world-class universities: 4 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • continuous statehood of just 119 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Christopher Luxon Prime Minister PWR 5265.31 / 10060.0100.012.574.964.125.257.575.424.7
#26Egypt
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a US mutual-defense treaty — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • A megaproject pipeline of $250 billion: the country is literally building its next decade.
  • A PPP GDP of $2.0 trillion: the real, street-level size of the economy once prices stop lying.
  • Economic diversification of 10 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • fertility 2.53 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • population 112.87 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • civilizational continuity: one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — empires pass, but deep roots steady the state long after the armies march home
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • internet penetration at 73.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • energy standing: roughly energy-balanced — exporters set terms, importers receive them
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no space capability — it rents its eyes in the sky from whoever will sell the pictures
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 103.0% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • Inflation of 28.3% — whether it melts wages running hot or freezes demand running cold, it betrays everyone who saves.
  • urbanization 43.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 1.4% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • jurisdictions under its legal model: 8 — the world admires many things here, but its laws are not among them
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 7 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • world-class universities: 3 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 11.6% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • renewables at 11.5% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi President PWR 4564.86 / 10066.155.040.254.954.822.047.554.757.9
#27Singapore
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 3.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • At $132,600 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $132,600 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 2.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • life expectancy 86 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • urbanization 100.0% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • infant mortality 1 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 100 — a bureaucracy that works is an empire's quietest weapon
  • ranked 4 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them
  • 94.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no collective-defense treaty — no one is legally bound to bleed for this country
  • At 175.6% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • FX reserves covering 5 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • With a nominal GDP of $547 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.8% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population 6.08 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 61 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • constitutional stability of 61 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 2 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • just 4.9% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Lawrence Wong Prime Minister PWR 6864.69 / 10061.161.639.572.253.618.656.765.644.3
#28Denmark
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • a defense burden of 3.2% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • Labor productivity of $73,700 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $73,700 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 1.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 82 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • urbanization 88.5% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the current constitutional order has stood 1,061 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • internet penetration at 100.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • ranked 10 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them
  • 88.0% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no space capability — a country without a launchpad watches the space age from the ground floor
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 5 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At $441 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • population growth 0.6% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 42 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • world-class universities: 4 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Mette Frederiksen Prime Minister PWR 5564.67 / 10058.272.630.579.265.125.546.778.050.1
#29Italy
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • At 1.0%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $53,100 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $53,100 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • life expectancy 83 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 60 — stone proof that history happened here first, not elsewhere
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • internet penetration at 87.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • ranked 26 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • arms exports of just 4.8% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 0.6% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • At 131.8% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • median age 48 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • population growth 0.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • urbanization 72.0% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • world-class universities: 15 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • a central bank only 133 years old — money here is still learning to trust the people who print it
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • just 1.5% of GDP for research — a country that won't pay for ideas will pay dearly for everyone else's
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Giorgia Meloni Prime Minister PWR 5264.38 / 10062.854.421.564.862.234.051.276.044.9
#30Sweden
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • a defense burden of 2.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • At $63,300 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $63,300 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • At 2.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 82 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • urbanization 88.7% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 503 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • low-carbon electricity at 98.7% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • global innovation rank 2 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next
  • 96.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once

What drags it down

  • 0.9% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Economic diversification of 5 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • population growth 0.5% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • median age 41 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • world-class universities: 8 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Ulf Kristersson Prime Minister PWR 4263.90 / 10061.355.130.575.965.120.647.574.241.6
#31Netherlands
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • defense spending at 2.5% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • Labor productivity of $70,900 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $70,900 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • Unemployment of 3.6% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • urbanization 93.2% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 81 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the current constitutional order has stood 445 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • 97.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • global innovation rank 8 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 1.2% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Growth trend of 1.4% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • population growth 0.3% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 42 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • jurisdictions under its legal model: 10 — the world admires many things here, but its laws are not among them
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 12 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Rob Jetten Prime Minister PWR 5063.81 / 10058.750.312.572.862.533.366.860.445.0
#32Pakistan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a nuclear arsenal — membership in the one club nobody joins by invitation, where admission ends every argument
  • defense spending at 2.5% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • Unemployment of 5.5% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • A PPP GDP of $1.4 trillion: the real, street-level size of the economy once prices stop lying.
  • Growth trend of 3.4% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • population 257.05 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population growth 1.8% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • power-sector carbon intensity 398 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no collective-defense treaty — no one is legally bound to bleed for this country
  • no space capability — a country without a launchpad watches the space age from the ground floor
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 3 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • With a pipeline of $62 billion, ambition here is a press release, not a construction site.
  • infant mortality 50 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • urbanization 38.0% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • life expectancy 70 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 2 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • continuous statehood of just 79 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • control of corruption at 22 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 27.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Shehbaz Sharif Prime Minister PWR 5063.75 / 10064.460.012.546.358.622.657.556.538.9
#33Morocco
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • the OCP phosphate monopoly — ~70% of the world's reserves: whoever feeds the planet's fields holds a leash on the future of food
  • co-host of the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal — stadiums, rails, and airports arriving on schedule, a decade of proof before a ball is kicked
  • Tanger Med — Africa's largest port and a top Mediterranean container hub: the Strait of Gibraltar now works for Morocco
  • an automotive and aerospace export hub — Renault and Stellantis build here for the world, not for the neighborhood
  • two decades of unbroken stability and growth — the country that reformed instead of burning
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a defense burden of 4.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • At 1.0%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • A growth trend of 3.9%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Economic diversification of 9 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • median age 30 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • internet penetration at 91.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale

What drags it down

  • water stress — the drought years are getting longer: dam levels decide the harvest before the farmers do
  • youth unemployment — a young population is an asset only when it has jobs; too many graduates are still waiting
  • phosphate-price exposure — the monopoly is a leash in both directions: when fertilizer prices fall, the treasury feels it first
  • the Moroccan Sahara dossier — the dispute that never closes: it is priced into every diplomatic room Morocco enters
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • 0 bloc memberships — diplomatically homeless in a world that negotiates in clubs
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Nominal GDP of $154 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At 6 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • infant mortality 17 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • corruption-control percentile of 45 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • just 26.5% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • urbanization 65.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
Aziz Akhannouch Head of Government (outgoing) PWR 4163.03 / 10064.749.357.951.655.921.238.855.467.2
#34Kazakhstan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • With 19 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Public debt of 20.9% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Growth trend of 5.7% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • median age 32 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • fertility 2.57 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • infant mortality 7 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • 93.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 8.8%, prices are a moving target — savers lose, speculators win, and nobody plans past the season.
  • With a nominal GDP of $288 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $739 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • urbanization 58.2% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • continuous statehood of just 35 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 35 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • control of corruption at 35 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • power-sector carbon intensity 801 gCO2/kWh — a grid this dirty makes every plugged-in device a small smokestack
  • low-carbon power at 14.9% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev President PWR 5062.95 / 10062.650.043.555.256.48.066.747.165.4
#35South Africa
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a regional power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • At 4.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Economic diversification of 10 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • Labor productivity of $13,600 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • fertility 2.23 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 30 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 116 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • critical minerals: platinum-group metals — ~75% of world reserves — the raw material of batteries and missiles alike, and others need it more than it needs them
  • 76.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • global innovation rank 60 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next

What drags it down

  • 0.3% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • Unemployment of 33.2% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 0.9% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • population growth 1.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • infant mortality 19 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 68.8% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 4 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • continuous statehood of just 116 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 12 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 0.8% of GDP for research — a country that won't pay for ideas will pay dearly for everyone else's
  • carbon intensity of 708 gCO2/kWh — every kilowatt-hour carries a debt to the atmosphere
Cyril Ramaphosa President PWR 4461.47 / 10067.238.953.746.957.121.246.253.547.5
#36Ecuador
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.2% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • At 1.5%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At 43.2% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 4.8% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • fertility 2.17 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 28 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the current constitutional order has stood 204 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • renewable electricity at 70.1% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them
  • internet penetration at 77.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Economic diversification of 5 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • urbanization 64.8% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.9% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • continuous statehood of just 204 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • sovereign-default count: 2 — every lender reads that history before naming a price
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • commodity exposure: a one-commodity economy — fuel is the budget — one price chart governs the national mood
Daniel Noboa President PWR 5561.30 / 10064.5–20.561.655.914.785.045.839.0
#37Argentina
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a US mutual-defense treaty — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • At $26,500 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $26,500 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • A PPP GDP of $1.2 trillion: the real, street-level size of the economy once prices stop lying.
  • urbanization 92.5% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • median age 34 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • infant mortality 7 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • constitutional stability of 210 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • 89.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • critical-mineral endowment: lithium — the 'lithium triangle's eastern pillar — whoever holds the matter of the transition holds a leash on the future
  • carbon intensity of 358 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 73.1%, prices are a moving target — savers lose, speculators win, and nobody plans past the season.
  • At 4 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • population growth 0.3% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • fertility 1.43 children per woman — a rate at war with stability: explosive growth the economy cannot absorb, or a demographic winter no policy has cracked
  • world-class universities: 2 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 3 — a state that treats creditor trust as a renewable resource
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 12 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
  • rent capture: rents leak — no fund, no cushion — geology pays, but nothing stays
Javier Milei President PWR 6660.77 / 10063.462.038.755.353.818.645.854.536.5
#38Libya
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • FX reserves covering 33 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • At 7.5% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • Growth trend of 7.0% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • life expectancy 77 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • urbanization 81.6% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • data transparency at 83.3% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • 89.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 18.7%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • With a nominal GDP of $47 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $91 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population growth 1.4% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 7.36 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 75 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • institutional memory: a state that has collapsed within living memory — states that have tasted collapse govern as if it could happen again
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — when the shock comes, this country discovers it never packed
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Transitional authority (contested)60.75 / 10062.9–31.258.048.79.385.047.656.5
#39Thailand
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a US mutual-defense treaty — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • With 31 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Unemployment of 0.7% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • At 1.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • population 70.03 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 788 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • internet penetration at 90.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • ranked 41 for innovation — a system that produces breakthroughs rather than importing them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 2.5% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • At 61.1% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • urbanization 53.6% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 41 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 8 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • corruption-control percentile of 45 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule-of-law percentile of 55 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • renewables at 8.1% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • low-carbon power at 14.9% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Anutin Charnvirakul Prime Minister PWR 4560.40 / 10064.445.621.559.563.010.342.559.147.3
#40Oman
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • At 1.0%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Unemployment of 3.2% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • At $36,700 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • urbanization 88.4% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • fertility 2.61 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 27 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the current constitutional order has stood 376 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • internet penetration at 95.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • rent capture: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — booms end, but funds compound
  • the energy ledger reads an energy exporter — it sells power to the world, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • FX reserves covering 4 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Nominal GDP of $107 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $194 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population growth 1.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 3.97 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 376 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • low-carbon power at 4.2% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • only 4.2% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Haitham bin Tariq Sultan PWR 9060.32 / 10059.1–35.765.652.19.385.050.560.7
#41Colombia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 3.4% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • FX reserves covering 9 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • Labor productivity of $18,500 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $18,500 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • median age 33 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.94 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the current constitutional order has stood 216 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • 61.8% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • internet penetration at 77.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 9.7%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • Public debt of 71.3% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • population growth 0.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • life expectancy 74 years — lives cut short by preventable causes: poverty, disease, violence, or a health system that never arrived
  • UNESCO World Heritage sites: 9 — the world has found little here it considers irreplaceable
  • a statehood history of 216 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • corruption-control percentile of 45 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Abelardo de la Espriella President PWR 5060.09 / 10069.2–12.561.856.219.645.056.837.2
#42Kuwait
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a US mutual-defense treaty — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • Public debt of 9.9% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Inflation of 2.9% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Unemployment of 2.2% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • urbanization 100.0% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • fertility 2.19 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 30 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • 100.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • rent capture: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — booms end, but funds compound
  • the energy ledger reads an energy exporter — it sells power to the world, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • Economic diversification of 7 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • Nominal GDP of $160 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $226 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • population growth 1.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population 3.17 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 65 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • constitutional stability of 65 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • low-carbon power at 2.2% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • renewables at 2.2% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Mishal Al-Ahmad Emir PWR 7559.93 / 10060.4–35.362.654.89.385.062.050.7
#43Algeria
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • A reserves cushion of 19 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • At 27.5% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • Inflation of 4.0% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • median age 29 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • life expectancy 77 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them
  • 77.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • gas reserves of 5 trillion cubic meters — the fuel that heats rivals' homes and cools their tempers

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no collective-defense treaty — no one is legally bound to bleed for this country
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Unemployment of 11.5% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • At 7 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • infant mortality 18 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • population growth 1.5% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • control of corruption at 30 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule of law at 35 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 35 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 0.7% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
  • just 0.7% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Abdelmadjid Tebboune President PWR 4559.88 / 10061.5–30.450.551.920.285.045.261.0
#44Peru
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a regional power — weight in the world that was earned, not assigned
  • A reserves cushion of 14 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • Economic diversification of 18 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • At 2.0%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • fertility 2.12 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 30 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • continuous statehood running 4,500 years unbroken — the institutional equivalent of muscle memory
  • internet penetration at 80.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • renewable electricity at 58.3% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • critical minerals: copper and lithium in the Andes — the raw material of batteries and missiles alike, and others need it more than it needs them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $289 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $536 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • population growth 0.6% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • life expectancy 68 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 13 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • control of corruption at 38 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • government effectiveness at 42 — the state cannot pave a road or deliver a letter, and it shows
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
  • resource rents: rents leak — no fund, no cushion — the boom's proceeds evaporate before they can become a future
Keiko Fujimori President PWR 4359.43 / 10065.1–31.757.062.115.357.543.348.5
#45Belgium
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • Labor productivity of $63,100 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $63,100 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • At 3.1%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • urbanization 98.2% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 82 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 196 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • internet penetration at 95.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • power-sector carbon intensity 117 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run
  • low-carbon electricity at 77.8% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 0 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Growth trend of 1.0% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • population growth 0.5% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 42 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • world-class universities: 6 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • continuous statehood of just 196 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Bart De Wever Prime Minister PWR 4759.22 / 10058.145.012.570.561.419.050.063.239.3
#46Philippines
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.7% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a US mutual-defense treaty — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • Unemployment of 2.2% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • A growth trend of 5.1%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 3.2%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • fertility 1.94 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • population 118.28 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • 84.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At $10,400 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • At $10,400 per worker, the economy throws bodies at problems instead of brains.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • urbanization 48.3% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.7% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • continuous statehood of just 80 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • control of corruption at 38 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule-of-law percentile of 45 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 12.5% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
  • just 21.7% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. President PWR 5259.17 / 10068.0–21.551.561.017.641.273.352.9
#47Finland
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.8% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • At 1.6%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $55,600 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $55,600 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • infant mortality 1 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 82 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • urbanization 85.8% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • control of corruption at 99 on the global percentile — the till is guarded, and everyone in power knows it
  • low-carbon electricity at 94.5% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • global innovation rank 7 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next
  • internet penetration at 94.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Growth trend of 0.2% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • population growth 0.0% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • median age 44 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • continuous statehood of just 109 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • world-class universities: 4 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Petteri Orpo Prime Minister PWR 5158.96 / 10055.273.712.573.558.921.647.576.127.2
#48Poland
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Unemployment of 2.5% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Labor productivity of $45,100 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $45,100 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • infant mortality 4 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 38.75 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • 86.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • 1.0% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 6 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At $29 billion in FDI, global capital has looked at the offer and walked away.
  • urbanization 60.2% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 1.0% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 43 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • world-class universities: 2 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • carbon intensity of 614 gCO2/kWh — every kilowatt-hour carries a debt to the atmosphere
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Donald Tusk Prime Minister PWR 5158.78 / 10060.626.215.061.762.720.643.873.251.5
#49Venezuela
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • a regional power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • A growth trend of 10.6%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Public debt of 38.9% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • At 5.5% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • fertility 2.16 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 31 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • urbanization 88.4% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the current constitutional order has stood 215 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • renewable electricity at 87.4% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • proved oil reserves of 303 billion barrels — energy weight you cannot sanction away, only negotiate around
  • 87.4% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 200.9%, prices are a moving target — savers lose, speculators win, and nobody plans past the season.
  • At $4,900 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • social cohesion: strained — sanctions and unrest weigh on it — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population growth 0.9% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • infant mortality 13 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • control of corruption at 8 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule-of-law percentile of 12 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 12 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — a crisis away from empty shelves and rationed fuel
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Delcy Rodríguez Interim President PWR 4458.77 / 10064.2–45.656.351.515.350.039.660.1
#50Ukraine
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 4.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • active military personnel 900,000 — a standing army with mass, not just uniforms on a roster
  • Labor productivity of $16,300 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $16,300 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • Public debt of 58.7% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • infant mortality 8 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • population 35.66 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • 1,100 years of unbroken statehood — nations that old do not improvise their survival
  • 82.2% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • internet penetration at 82.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 0.3% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • at war — every other ambition waits while the guns decide the schedule
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Unemployment of 9.9% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • With a nominal GDP of $191 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • median age 44 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • urbanization 70.1% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • control of corruption at 22 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • the current constitutional order is 35 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the survival record reads a state that has collapsed within living memory — collapsed states rebuild buildings faster than they rebuild trust
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — a crisis away from empty shelves and rationed fuel
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Volodymyr Zelenskyy President PWR 5758.60 / 10061.335.212.561.649.017.651.745.944.8
#51North Korea
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a nuclear arsenal — membership in the one club nobody joins by invitation, where admission ends every argument
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • active military personnel 1.30 million — a standing army with mass, not just uniforms on a roster
  • Unemployment of 2.9% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • With 9 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Nominal GDP of $16 billion — sheer economic mass that moves markets, shapes alliances, and forces everyone else to check its weather.
  • fertility 1.8 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 36 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • the current constitutional order has stood 81 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • under multilateral sanctions — its economy negotiates with one hand tied by the world's rulebook
  • At $600 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • At $600 per worker, the economy throws bodies at problems instead of brains.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • social cohesion: strained — sanctions and unrest weigh on it — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • population growth 0.4% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • urbanization 63.2% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • continuous statehood of just 81 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-breaker — signatures are tactical — a signature here is a photograph, not a commitment
  • the alliance record reads an ally with a record of walking away — a reputation for leaving is the most expensive thing a state can carry into a negotiation
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Kim Jong Un Supreme Leader PWR 8958.20 / 10057.265.012.563.160.28.022.530.058.3
#52Chile
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • At 21.0% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At $30,200 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $30,200 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • infant mortality 4 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • urbanization 88.0% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • life expectancy 80 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 216 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • 95.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • critical minerals: lithium — ~9.3Mt of reserves, the world's largest stockpile — the raw material of batteries and missiles alike, and others need it more than it needs them
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no collective-defense treaty — when the shooting starts, this capital stands alone by treaty
  • FX reserves covering 5 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Foreign direct investment of $21 billion — the world is putting its money everywhere except here.
  • $30 billion — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • population growth 0.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • fertility 1.25 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • world-class universities: 2 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • continuous statehood of just 216 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
  • only 8 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
José Antonio Kast President PWR 5257.94 / 10062.4–48.766.459.919.645.050.033.1
#53Guatemala
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Inflation of 2.9% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Unemployment of 2.3% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Public debt of 31.6% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • fertility 1.97 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 26 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 205 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • low-carbon electricity at 74.5% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • carbon intensity of 272 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $113 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $233 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • urbanization 53.1% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 23 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • population growth 1.0% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • a statehood history of 205 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Bernardo Arévalo President PWR 5457.19 / 10064.4–12.559.458.38.057.545.739.7
#54Switzerland
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • A reserves cushion of 18 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • At $82,000 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $82,000 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • life expectancy 83 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • fertility 1.59 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the current constitutional order has stood 735 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • global innovation rank 1 — among the countries writing the rules of what comes next
  • low-carbon electricity at 97.7% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • internet penetration at 97.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale

What drags it down

  • 0.4% of global arms exports — it buys its security from whoever will sell it
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 1.3% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • At 9 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • population growth 0.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 44 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • jurisdictions running on its legal model: 10 — its rules govern no one beyond its own borders
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 10 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • a statehood history of 735 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Guy Parmelin President of the Swiss Confederation PWR 4957.18 / 10054.751.312.575.672.49.351.836.631.8
#55Panama
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • defense spending at 1.1% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • Labor productivity of $36,400 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $36,400 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 37.4% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • median age 31 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 2.33 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • life expectancy 79 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the current constitutional order has stood 123 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • 78.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • 61.5% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • $2 billion — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Economic diversification of 4 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • urbanization 69.5% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 1.4% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • a statehood history of 123 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
José Raúl Mulino President PWR 5757.15 / 10060.6–38.265.352.58.057.545.344.9
#56Austria
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • defense spending at 1.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • At $63,300 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $63,300 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • At 2.9%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • life expectancy 82 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the current constitutional order has stood 1,050 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • renewable electricity at 80.2% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • internet penetration at 95.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • low-carbon electricity at 86.7% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Growth trend of 0.9% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • urbanization 59.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.3% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 44 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 5 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Christian Stocker Chancellor PWR 4556.36 / 10053.155.615.069.870.59.355.043.143.0
#57Portugal
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • With 22 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • At 2.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $41,900 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 81 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the current constitutional order has stood 883 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • 76.2% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • 85.2% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • 86.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 3 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Public debt of 125.7% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • population growth 0.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • median age 46 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • urbanization 67.9% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • jurisdictions running on its legal model: 8 — its rules govern no one beyond its own borders
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 3 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 17 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Luís Montenegro Prime Minister PWR 4856.21 / 10055.1–12.567.469.424.357.554.458.3
#58Azerbaijan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • Inflation of 2.2% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At 16.8% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • Labor productivity of $22,100 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • median age 34 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.69 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 89.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • Nominal GDP of $74 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • FX reserves covering 5 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At $225 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 57.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.4% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • the current constitutional order is 35 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • corruption-control percentile of 32 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 40 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • low-carbon power at 12.0% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • renewables at 11.6% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Ilham Aliyev President PWR 5656.03 / 10057.1–22.856.552.78.085.040.952.0
#59Honduras
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 4.6%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Public debt of 38.5% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • At 6.1% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • fertility 2.29 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • median age 26 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 205 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • carbon intensity of 289 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything
  • 61.6% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 5 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • With a nominal GDP of $37 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 60.2% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 1.3% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • a statehood history of 205 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Nasry Asfura President PWR 4655.64 / 10061.2–12.561.956.78.057.543.940.2
#60Romania
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • a defense burden of 2.3% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • At $40,600 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $40,600 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • Inflation of 5.7% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • infant mortality 5 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • fertility 1.63 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • 89.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • low-carbon electricity at 68.0% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 0.7% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • At 5 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • urbanization 54.7% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • median age 45 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • population growth 0.9% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • continuous statehood of just 696 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — partners here are seasonal, and the seasons change fast
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Ilie Bolojan Prime Minister PWR 3655.56 / 10058.4–35.065.868.014.545.573.633.1
#61Costa Rica
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • At $27,000 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $27,000 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 0.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • life expectancy 80 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • median age 36 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 205 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • 80.9% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • 94.0% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • carbon intensity of 63 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 6 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • With a nominal GDP of $95 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population 5.30 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • continuous statehood of just 205 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Laura Fernández Delgado President PWR 5155.43 / 10057.8–12.572.453.48.057.547.542.6
#62Uzbekistan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.8% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • FX reserves covering 11 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • Public debt of 10.5% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • A growth trend of 7.1%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • median age 29 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • fertility 2.6 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • internet penetration at 89.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Nominal GDP of $115 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • Economic diversification of 7 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • urbanization 50.5% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 1.3% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • infant mortality 17 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • constitutional stability of 35 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • control of corruption at 28 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule-of-law percentile of 35 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • low-carbon power at 16.0% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • only 16.0% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Shavkat Mirziyoyev President PWR 6255.42 / 10059.1–12.556.262.48.057.549.063.7
#63Dominican Republic
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At 34.6% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 3.3%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $24,200 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • fertility 2.17 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 29 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • urbanization 84.4% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • constitutional stability of 182 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • internet penetration at 85.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 4 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • With a nominal GDP of $124 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • infant mortality 20 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • a statehood history of 182 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 18.5% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • only 17.6% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Luis Abinader President PWR 6155.40 / 10061.2–12.559.655.013.757.546.036.2
#64Iraq
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.5% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • A reserves cushion of 14 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • At 27.4% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 4.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 42.92 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • life expectancy 73 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the civilizational record reads one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — and old nations do not need to invent a past; they need only not betray it
  • 5,500 years of unbroken statehood — nations that old do not improvise their survival
  • proved oil reserves of 145 billion barrels — energy weight you cannot sanction away, only negotiate around
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them
  • 82.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • Unemployment of 15.6% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At -0.3% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • infant mortality 18 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 71.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • the survival record reads a state that has collapsed within living memory — collapsed states rebuild buildings faster than they rebuild trust
  • treaty compliance: a mostly reliable treaty partner — a signature here is a photograph, not a commitment
  • the alliance record reads a steady ally — a reputation for leaving is the most expensive thing a state can carry into a negotiation
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • renewables at 1.0% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • just 1.0% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Ali al-Zaidi Prime Minister PWR 4055.28 / 10057.4–40.049.244.79.385.043.450.6
#65Turkmenistan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.9% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Public debt of 24.1% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Unemployment of 4.4% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • A growth trend of 4.3%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • median age 31 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 2.02 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them
  • gas reserves of 12 trillion cubic meters — the fuel that heats rivals' homes and cools their tempers
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 5 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • With a nominal GDP of $64 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • infant mortality 35 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 54.0% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.9% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • continuous statehood of just 35 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 35 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 0.0% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
  • just 0.0% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Serdar Berdimuhamedow President PWR 4355.10 / 10057.5–32.850.744.68.085.046.747.6
#66Sri Lanka
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • Growth trend of 5.0% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 5.0% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Inflation of 0.4% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • fertility 2.12 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 34 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 49.3% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 3 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Nominal GDP of $99 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • urbanization 19.2% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.2% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • corruption-control percentile of 42 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • government effectiveness at 48 — the state cannot pave a road or deliver a letter, and it shows
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • a food base of 7 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Anura Kumara Dissanayake President PWR 6054.57 / 10060.3–21.557.750.18.057.544.441.1
#67Nicaragua
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At 33.3% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 4.6% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 4.6%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • fertility 1.82 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 29 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 205 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 64.5% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • power-sector carbon intensity 288 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $20 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $53 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 59.8% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.9% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • a statehood history of 205 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • treaty compliance: a mostly reliable treaty partner — a signature here is a photograph, not a commitment
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Daniel Ortega President PWR 3054.56 / 10059.7–12.558.364.18.057.547.841.0
#68Iceland
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • At $65,600 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $65,600 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 3.2% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • urbanization 94.0% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • life expectancy 84 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 1 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • internet penetration at 100.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • 100.0% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • renewable electricity at 69.5% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At $27 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • Nominal GDP of $33 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 364,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the alliance record reads a steady ally — a reputation for leaving is the most expensive thing a state can carry into a negotiation
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have tasted collapse govern as if it could happen again
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • a food base of 7 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Kristrún Frostadóttir Prime Minister PWR 4554.24 / 10052.3–21.577.461.910.357.579.440.8
#69Nigeria
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a regional power — weight in the world that was earned, not assigned
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Economic diversification of 16 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • Public debt of 19.6% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Unemployment of 3.0% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • population 244.34 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.4% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the civilizational record reads a deep civilizational inheritance — and old nations do not need to invent a past; they need only not betray it
  • resource rents: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • proved oil reserves of 37 billion barrels — energy weight you cannot sanction away, only negotiate around
  • the energy ledger reads roughly energy-balanced, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no collective-defense treaty — when the shooting starts, this capital stands alone by treaty
  • $3 billion — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 33.2%, prices are a moving target — savers lose, speculators win, and nobody plans past the season.
  • At $5,700 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • infant mortality 65 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • fertility 4.59 children per woman — a rate at war with stability: explosive growth the economy cannot absorb, or a demographic winter no policy has cracked
  • control of corruption at 15 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule of law at 18 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 20 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 23.0% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Bola Tinubu President PWR 4654.23 / 10057.3–35.343.746.315.070.054.660.8
#70Greece
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.9% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • At 2.7%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $37,800 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $37,800 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 81 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • civilizational continuity: one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — empires pass, but deep roots steady the state long after the armies march home
  • continuous statehood running 3,400 years unbroken — the institutional equivalent of muscle memory
  • 85.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • power-sector carbon intensity 319 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no space capability — a country without a launchpad watches the space age from the ground floor
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 190.6% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • median age 46 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • population growth 0.3% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 2 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 19 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Kyriakos Mitsotakis Prime Minister PWR 5354.14 / 10055.6–21.561.658.421.245.065.552.8
#71Bangladesh
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • contributing 5800 UN peacekeepers — the kind of credibility no speech can buy
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • Public debt of 33.3% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • At 4.7% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Growth trend of 3.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • fertility 2.25 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • population 174.37 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • median age 27 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 3 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • Megaprojects pipeline of $80 billion — no great works underway, which means no great future being built.
  • urbanization 40.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 22 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • population growth 0.9% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • a statehood history of 55 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • corruption-control percentile of 22 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 28 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 2.0% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • only 2.0% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Tarique Rahman Prime Minister PWR 4853.99 / 10064.5–12.542.246.917.048.352.044.3
#72Georgia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 1.7% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • A growth trend of 8.4%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Inflation of 1.1% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At $25,000 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • fertility 1.94 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 38 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • renewable electricity at 80.2% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • 80.2% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • power-sector carbon intensity 143 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • With a nominal GDP of $34 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 60.7% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • infant mortality 20 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • constitutional stability of 35 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Irakli Kobakhidze Prime Minister PWR 3953.97 / 10054.2–12.563.758.48.057.550.572.2
#73Cambodia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Unemployment of 0.3% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Inflation of 2.1% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Growth trend of 5.7% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • fertility 2.14 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 28 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the civilizational record reads a deep civilizational inheritance — and old nations do not need to invent a past; they need only not betray it
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • 61.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $46 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $124 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 25.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 27 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • population growth 0.9% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • corruption-control percentile of 18 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule-of-law percentile of 25 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • government effectiveness at 30 — the state cannot pave a road or deliver a letter, and it shows
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Hun Manet Prime Minister PWR 4953.79 / 10057.4–12.552.467.88.057.550.261.5
#74Croatia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • With 14 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Inflation of 3.0% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At $42,600 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • life expectancy 77 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • internet penetration at 83.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • renewable electricity at 65.9% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • carbon intensity of 174 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • FX reserves covering 0 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $93 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 58.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • median age 44 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • constitutional stability of 35 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — partners here are seasonal, and the seasons change fast
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Andrej Plenković Prime Minister PWR 4653.73 / 10055.9–21.765.759.39.349.075.642.3
#75Kenya
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a regional power — weight in the world that was earned, not assigned
  • At 4.5%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • A growth trend of 4.6%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Unemployment of 5.5% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 55.75 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • population growth 2.1% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • low-carbon electricity at 91.9% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • carbon intensity of 84 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $124 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $5,800 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • urbanization 29.5% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 26 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • median age 21 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • a statehood history of 63 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • control of corruption at 28 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule of law at 35 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • internet access at 35.0% — the digital economy is a rumor for most of the population
William Ruto President PWR 4553.56 / 10058.2–12.552.850.117.057.555.347.7
#76Ireland
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • Labor productivity of $115,300 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $115,300 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 2.1%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 82 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • fertility 1.72 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 105 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • 97.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • carbon intensity of 279 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 0 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Economic diversification of 6 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • urbanization 64.5% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • a statehood history of 105 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • universities ranked among the world's best: 5 — a country that does not grow minds must import them
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • a food base of 7 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Micheál Martin Taoiseach PWR 5253.39 / 10057.6–12.563.357.69.355.048.732.9
#77Tunisia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.5% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Labor productivity of $12,700 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $12,700 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • At 62.3% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • median age 34 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.59 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • internet penetration at 72.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 16.3%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Nominal GDP of $53 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • population growth 0.4% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • urbanization 70.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • corruption-control percentile of 45 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • government effectiveness at 45 — the state cannot pave a road or deliver a letter, and it shows
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 4.0% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • renewables at 4.0% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Kaïs Saïed President PWR 3153.22 / 10057.9–12.552.056.59.357.561.151.0
#78Bulgaria
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.1% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • Economic diversification of 14 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • Inflation of 2.4% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Labor productivity of $34,100 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • infant mortality 7 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • fertility 1.52 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • 80.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • 72.9% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $112 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $220 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • median age 45 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • population growth 0.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — partners here are seasonal, and the seasons change fast
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — collapsed states rebuild buildings faster than they rebuild trust
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Rumen Radev Prime Minister PWR 5552.79 / 10053.3–10.064.769.613.252.375.248.9
#79Paraguay
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Public debt of 18.9% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • A growth trend of 5.4%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 3.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • median age 32 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.88 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • life expectancy 78 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the current constitutional order has stood 215 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • 100.0% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • 99.5% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • power-sector carbon intensity 24 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $44 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $113 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 63.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 21 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • population growth 1.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • continuous statehood of just 215 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Santiago Peña President PWR 5852.62 / 10055.1–12.562.963.98.057.546.845.6
#80Bahrain
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 3.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 1.2% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At $59,100 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $59,100 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • median age 33 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • urbanization 89.9% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • life expectancy 80 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • 100.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • At 1 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • Public debt of 111.6% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • Nominal GDP of $48 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 1.57 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • continuous statehood of just 55 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • constitutional stability of 55 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • a food base of 4 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa King PWR 7652.55 / 10053.4–12.568.947.99.357.566.246.1
#81Kyrgyzstan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • a defense burden of 3.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • Growth trend of 10.0% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 3.3% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Economic diversification of 11 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • fertility 2.43 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 28 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • renewable electricity at 84.0% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • internet penetration at 89.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • low-carbon electricity at 84.0% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $17 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $51 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 37.8% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 24 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • continuous statehood of just 35 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 35 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Sadyr Japarov President PWR 5352.27 / 10052.3–12.564.852.08.057.547.069.6
#82Jordan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a US mutual-defense treaty — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • Inflation of 1.6% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • A reserves cushion of 9 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • Economic diversification of 11 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • urbanization 92.0% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • life expectancy 76 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • continuous statehood running 4,000 years unbroken — the institutional equivalent of muscle memory
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • internet penetration at 93.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • At 18.0%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Public debt of 102.8% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population growth 1.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 11.31 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the current constitutional order is 80 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • control of corruption at 58 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 4 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Jafar Hassan Prime Minister PWR 5652.16 / 10056.3–21.555.558.315.846.765.041.1
#83Ethiopia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • a regional power — weight in the world that was earned, not assigned
  • A growth trend of 8.5%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 3.4% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 31.4% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • population 121.37 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population growth 2.3% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the survival record reads survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • the civilizational record reads one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — and old nations do not need to invent a past; they need only not betray it
  • low-carbon electricity at 100.0% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • 99.8% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • power-sector carbon intensity 23 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 1 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • At 21.0%, prices are a moving target — savers lose, speculators win, and nobody plans past the season.
  • urbanization 23.2% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • infant mortality 31 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 12 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • corruption-control percentile of 22 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 25 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 17.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Abiy Ahmed Prime Minister PWR 4251.57 / 10055.0–12.546.645.819.557.548.466.8
#84El Salvador
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • defense spending at 1.2% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • Unemployment of 2.9% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • At 0.9%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Growth trend of 3.3% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • median age 31 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • infant mortality 10 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the current constitutional order has stood 205 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • 92.5% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • carbon intensity of 101 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 2 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • With a nominal GDP of $35 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.3% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • urbanization 75.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • a statehood history of 205 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • a food base of 7 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Nayib Bukele President PWR 6751.45 / 10054.5–12.565.154.38.057.544.136.6
#85Mongolia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • A growth trend of 5.9%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Unemployment of 5.5% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Labor productivity of $16,800 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • median age 28 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 2.6 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • institutional memory: survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 2,200 years of unbroken statehood — nations that old do not improvise their survival
  • 83.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • critical-mineral endowment: copper and rare earths — whoever holds the matter of the transition holds a leash on the future
  • commodity exposure: commodity-heavy exports — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $24 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $59 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • population growth 1.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • urbanization 69.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • corruption-control percentile of 45 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 50 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • carbon intensity of 784 gCO2/kWh — every kilowatt-hour carries a debt to the atmosphere
  • low-carbon power at 9.7% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Uchral Nyam-Osor Prime Minister PWR 4651.22 / 10052.0–22.553.461.88.057.553.969.0
#86Guyana
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • A growth trend of 31.4%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Labor productivity of $70,300 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $70,300 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • fertility 2.04 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 28 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 82.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • At 1 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $25 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • urbanization 27.2% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.3% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • infant mortality 20 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • a statehood history of 60 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 60 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Mohamed Irfaan Ali President PWR 6151.21 / 10053.9–12.553.551.68.057.558.861.6
#87Jamaica
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • defense spending at 1.4% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • At 4.9% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 5.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $10,300 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • fertility 1.86 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 28 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 83.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Public debt of 106.3% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • With a nominal GDP of $20 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 57.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.2% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • continuous statehood of just 64 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Andrew Holness Prime Minister PWR 6251.19 / 10054.8–12.564.246.18.057.555.333.0
#88Burma
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 3.9% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • 450,000 troops on active duty — manpower that turns doctrine into something an enemy can count
  • command of 1 world chokepoints — geography this valuable is a weapon you never have to fire
  • Economic diversification of 13 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • At 3.1% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Public debt of 35.7% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • median age 31 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.95 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the civilizational record reads a deep civilizational inheritance — and old nations do not need to invent a past; they need only not betray it
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • internet penetration at 59.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • at war — a state at war judges itself on survival first, and everything else is a footnote
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Growth trend of -0.5% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • Nominal GDP of $74 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • urbanization 32.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • infant mortality 30 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • corruption-control percentile of 10 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule-of-law percentile of 12 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • government effectiveness at 12 — the state cannot pave a road or deliver a letter, and it shows
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — a crisis away from empty shelves and rationed fuel
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Min Aung Hlaing President of Myanmar PWR 8551.17 / 10063.6–23.446.943.58.022.540.050.0
#89Bolivia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a defense burden of 1.2% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • At 3.1% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 5.1%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Public debt of 49.0% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • fertility 2.13 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 27 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 201 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • critical-mineral endowment: lithium — vast salars, mostly undeveloped — whoever holds the matter of the transition holds a leash on the future
  • 70.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: commodity-heavy exports — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Growth trend of -0.1% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • infant mortality 22 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • population growth 1.0% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • urbanization 71.2% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • continuous statehood of just 201 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
  • resource rents: rents leak — no fund, no cushion — the boom's proceeds evaporate before they can become a future
Rodrigo Paz President PWR 5250.91 / 10055.5–31.753.858.28.057.543.632.2
#90Ghana
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • 2800 peacekeepers contributed — it puts its own soldiers between other people's wars and peace
  • At 3.1% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • A growth trend of 5.8%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Economic diversification of 8 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 35.34 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 2.1% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • 70.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 1 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Inflation of 22.8% — whether it melts wages running hot or freezes demand running cold, it betrays everyone who saves.
  • infant mortality 30 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • urbanization 59.2% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • fertility 3.51 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • a statehood history of 69 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
John Mahama President PWR 5250.75 / 10054.8–12.550.845.513.757.559.549.9
#91Nepal
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • contributing 6100 UN peacekeepers — the kind of credibility no speech can buy
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 39.9% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • A reserves cushion of 8 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • A growth trend of 4.1%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • fertility 1.82 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 28 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 258 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • internet penetration at 56.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $43 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • Prosperity per person of $5,000 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • urbanization 21.9% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 23 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • population growth 0.7% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • corruption-control percentile of 28 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 32 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • rule of law at 35 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Balendra Shah Prime Minister PWR 4550.68 / 10055.5–21.743.157.317.057.551.946.5
#92Hungary
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.1% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • At $40,700 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $40,700 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • At 4.5% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • infant mortality 4 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • fertility 1.6 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • 92.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • power-sector carbon intensity 182 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run
  • 73.8% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 3 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At 0.5% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • population growth 0.3% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • median age 45 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — partners here are seasonal, and the seasons change fast
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — collapsed states rebuild buildings faster than they rebuild trust
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Péter Magyar Prime Minister PWR 4850.59 / 10052.7–10.067.862.19.346.864.738.6
#93Czechia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • Inflation of 2.4% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At 2.6% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At $48,000 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • fertility 1.73 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • life expectancy 78 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • internet penetration at 86.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 57.8% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else

What drags it down

  • arms exports of just 0.3% of the world market — a customer of the arms trade, never its author
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Economic diversification of 5 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • At 1.8% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • population growth 0.0% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • median age 44 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • world-class universities: 2 — great powers are built in lecture halls before they are built anywhere else
  • the current constitutional order is 33 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • renewables at 10.0% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Andrej Babiš Prime Minister PWR 4450.57 / 10053.40.710.063.562.59.348.277.133.3
#94Uruguay
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.1% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • FX reserves covering 10 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • Labor productivity of $32,000 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $32,000 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • urbanization 95.8% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 78 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • constitutional stability of 201 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • low-carbon electricity at 94.6% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • internet penetration at 90.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • renewable electricity at 72.7% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 6 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • With a nominal GDP of $81 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population 3.45 million — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • a statehood history of 201 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Yamandú Orsi President PWR 5350.45 / 10050.9–12.568.559.813.757.542.540.2
#95Albania
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • Inflation of 2.2% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At $18,900 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $18,900 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • life expectancy 79 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • median age 37 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • low-carbon electricity at 100.0% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • renewable electricity at 100.0% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • carbon intensity of 24 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $27 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $51 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 64.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 1.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • population 2.55 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — partners here are seasonal, and the seasons change fast
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Edi Rama Prime Minister PWR 4850.43 / 10050.7–12.563.165.49.357.576.941.6
#96Lithuania
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 4.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • With 20 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Labor productivity of $47,200 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $47,200 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • life expectancy 76 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • 89.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • 70.5% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • low-carbon electricity at 80.3% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 1 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Nominal GDP of $85 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • population growth 0.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 44 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • urbanization 68.7% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • continuous statehood of just 108 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Mindaugas Sinkevičius Prime Minister PWR 4550.39 / 10050.6–12.564.761.713.248.378.148.0
#97Latvia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • a defense burden of 3.7% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • At 1.3%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At 36.3% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At $38,900 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • life expectancy 76 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • 92.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • carbon intensity of 136 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything
  • 62.2% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 2 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • Nominal GDP of $44 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • median age 43 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • urbanization 68.7% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 1.3% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • continuous statehood of just 108 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 5 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Andris Kulbergs Prime Minister PWR 4150.33 / 10050.3–15.068.059.113.257.574.730.9
#98Brunei
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 3.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • Public debt of 2.8% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • At $79,200 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $79,200 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • median age 32 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.73 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • life expectancy 78 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 99.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $15 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $37 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • population 492,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 1.4% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • continuous statehood of just 42 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 42 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • a food base of 7 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Hassanal Bolkiah Sultan PWR 8750.00 / 10050.5–30.568.753.58.057.544.035.5
#99Cuba
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • defense spending at 4.2% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • annual military expenditure $11 billion — the budget that makes adversaries do the math twice
  • At 1.6% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At $23,700 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $23,700 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • infant mortality 5 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 80 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 83.3% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • constitutional stability of 124 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 71.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Inflation of 76.1% — whether it melts wages running hot or freezes demand running cold, it betrays everyone who saves.
  • At 0.4% growth, the country is not developing, it is waiting — and demography will not wait for it to start.
  • social cohesion: strained — sanctions and unrest weigh on it — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • median age 46 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • population growth 0.6% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • a statehood history of 124 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • rule-of-law percentile of 30 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-breaker — signatures are tactical — a signature here is a photograph, not a commitment
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Miguel Díaz-Canel President PWR 3249.96 / 10056.3–21.565.560.413.722.534.837.0
#100Fiji
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • defense spending at 1.4% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • Unemployment of 4.4% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • At 4.5%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At 47.5% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • median age 32 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • fertility 2.18 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 79.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • renewable electricity at 53.0% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • With a nominal GDP of $6 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $13 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 58.7% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.4% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 952,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 56 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 56 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Sitiveni Rabuka Prime Minister PWR 5949.96 / 10050.5–12.565.858.58.057.555.945.0
#101Lebanon
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.9% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • FX reserves covering 17 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • Economic diversification of 12 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • Labor productivity of $11,300 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • fertility 2.2 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • urbanization 89.4% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • median age 29 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • continuous statehood running 5,000 years unbroken — the institutional equivalent of muscle memory
  • civilizational continuity: one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — empires pass, but deep roots steady the state long after the armies march home
  • 84.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • 46.7% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • Public debt of 146.8% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • Growth trend of -3.1% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • population growth 0.8% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • population 5.36 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • corruption-control percentile of 15 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 25 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 25 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 5 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — a crisis away from empty shelves and rationed fuel
Nawaf Salam Prime Minister PWR 4849.47 / 10054.4–12.558.441.19.357.549.931.7
#102Serbia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • At $26,900 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $26,900 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 4.7%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • infant mortality 4 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • fertility 1.47 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 85.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $89 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $177 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • urbanization 57.1% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.6% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 44 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • constitutional stability of 20 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • carbon intensity of 670 gCO2/kWh — every kilowatt-hour carries a debt to the atmosphere
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Aleksandar Vučić President PWR 3849.36 / 10051.1–15.060.260.69.357.550.443.3
#103Namibia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.8% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Public debt of 4.6% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Inflation of 4.2% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • A growth trend of 2.7%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • fertility 2.85 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 23 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • low-carbon electricity at 97.9% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • 97.9% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • power-sector carbon intensity 47 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • Unemployment of 19.2% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $13 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 54.9% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 27 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • life expectancy 65 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • continuous statehood of just 36 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 36 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 7 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah President PWR 4949.11 / 10051.2–28.355.452.28.057.560.244.9
#104Tajikistan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 1.8% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Growth trend of 8.4% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Public debt of 42.0% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Economic diversification of 8 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 10.59 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 1.9% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • continuous statehood running 2,500 years unbroken — the institutional equivalent of muscle memory
  • 89.3% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • 89.3% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • power-sector carbon intensity 115 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $14 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $50 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 28.2% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • fertility 3.52 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • infant mortality 20 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • constitutional stability of 35 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Emomali Rahmon President PWR 4649.01 / 10049.1–12.560.055.58.057.555.765.7
#105Gabon
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 1.5% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 1.2%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $18,900 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $18,900 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • urbanization 91.0% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.4% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • the energy ledger reads an energy exporter — it sells power to the world, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power
  • 72.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • At 20.1%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • infant mortality 26 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • life expectancy 70 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • median age 22 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • proved oil reserves of 2 billion barrels — a geology that offers nothing, which makes energy security a bill, not an inheritance
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Brice Oligui Nguema President PWR 4448.92 / 10051.2–12.450.445.68.085.050.038.1
#106Tanzania
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a defense burden of 1.3% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • Unemployment of 2.6% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Growth trend of 5.7% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Inflation of 3.1% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • population 69.15 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.9% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • power-sector carbon intensity 371 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 3 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • Prosperity per person of $3,700 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • urbanization 37.4% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • fertility 4.45 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • infant mortality 28 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • continuous statehood of just 62 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 62 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 29.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • just 25.5% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Samia Suluhu Hassan President PWR 4848.26 / 10053.7–12.549.448.98.057.557.344.4
#107The Bahamas
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At $36,200 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $36,200 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • Inflation of 0.4% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • median age 31 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • urbanization 83.6% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • 95.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • PPP GDP of $15 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • Nominal GDP of $16 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • population 415,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • population growth 1.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • continuous statehood of just 53 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 53 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Philip Davis Prime Minister PWR 5348.16 / 10048.7–21.567.350.68.057.555.943.6
#108Slovakia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • With 17 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • At 2.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $40,300 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • infant mortality 5 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • fertility 1.6 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • 90.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • low-carbon electricity at 86.0% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • power-sector carbon intensity 96 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $142 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • urbanization 54.0% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • median age 43 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • continuous statehood of just 33 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 33 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • renewables at 18.7% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Robert Fico Prime Minister PWR 4048.05 / 10050.9–10.063.460.19.352.376.130.4
#109Suriname
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a defense burden of 1.2% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • Labor productivity of $19,400 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $19,400 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • FX reserves covering 7 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • median age 32 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • fertility 1.87 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 78.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • Nominal GDP of $5 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $12 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • infant mortality 29 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • urbanization 66.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 1.0% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • a statehood history of 51 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 51 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Jennifer Geerlings-Simons President PWR 5547.82 / 10051.7–12.559.445.78.057.551.841.1
#110Armenia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • With 17 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Growth trend of 6.6% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 0.3%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • fertility 1.66 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • life expectancy 76 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 80.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • carbon intensity of 244 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 2 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • At 13.4%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • population growth 0.5% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • urbanization 63.7% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • the current constitutional order is 35 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • rule-of-law percentile of 55 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Nikol Pashinyan Prime Minister PWR 6447.68 / 10047.9–12.558.762.18.051.056.972.3
#111Estonia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • a defense burden of 3.4% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • Public debt of 28.3% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • At $41,500 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $41,500 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 78 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • internet penetration at 93.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • 56.7% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • FX reserves covering 0 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $43 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.5% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 42 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • urbanization 69.8% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • continuous statehood of just 108 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 5 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Kristen Michal Prime Minister PWR 4646.93 / 10049.9–12.563.955.913.257.576.421.3
#112Madagascar
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Economic diversification of 14 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • At 3.1% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 38.4% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 31.35 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 2.1% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • an agricultural base of 10 distinct crops and products — food security is written in fields, not in futures contracts

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Prosperity per person of $1,700 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • Labor productivity of $1,700 per worker — a workforce running hard just to stand still.
  • urbanization 40.6% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 38 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • fertility 3.47 children per woman — a rate at war with stability: explosive growth the economy cannot absorb, or a demographic winter no policy has cracked
  • continuous statehood of just 66 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • constitutional stability of 66 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • internet access at 20.0% — the digital economy is a rumor for most of the population
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Michael Randrianirina Transitional President PWR 3145.96 / 10051.8–21.549.252.18.057.548.245.4
#113Luxembourg
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • At $128,200 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • With 15 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Prosperity per person of $128,200 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • life expectancy 83 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • urbanization 92.1% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 187 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • internet penetration at 99.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • 90.4% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • carbon intensity of 134 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • At 0 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At $87 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • population 671,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • population growth 1.3% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • a statehood history of 187 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Luc Frieden Prime Minister PWR 4745.89 / 10047.6–12.571.263.312.057.563.925.4
#114Côte d'Ivoire
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • Unemployment of 2.3% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Growth trend of 6.2% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 3.5%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 31.86 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • population growth 2.3% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • power-sector carbon intensity 393 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $87 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • Prosperity per person of $6,700 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • infant mortality 52 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 53.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • fertility 3.85 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • continuous statehood of just 66 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • control of corruption at 35 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule of law at 42 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • just 31.1% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Alassane Ouattara President PWR 5045.80 / 10053.2–12.546.449.28.057.549.946.4
#115Slovenia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • At 2.0%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $48,500 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $48,500 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • infant mortality 1 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • life expectancy 82 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • internet penetration at 90.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • 76.2% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • FX reserves covering 0 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $72 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 56.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.2% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 46 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • continuous statehood of just 35 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 35 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Janez Janša Prime Minister PWR 4845.34 / 10048.5–15.066.659.09.351.776.229.8
#116Senegal
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 1.6% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • A growth trend of 6.8%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 3.0% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Inflation of 0.8% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 18.85 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • population growth 2.4% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 61.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Nominal GDP of $32 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • PPP GDP of $83 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • urbanization 49.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 30 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • fertility 3.96 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • world-heritage sites on the UNESCO list: 7 — other nations carved their memory in stone; this one is still looking for the chisel
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • just 21.7% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • renewables at 20.4% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Bassirou Diomaye Faye President PWR 4645.32 / 10051.0–12.550.249.98.057.550.155.6
#117Laos
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Unemployment of 1.3% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • A growth trend of 4.4%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • With 9 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • fertility 2.19 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 25 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • renewable electricity at 76.6% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • low-carbon electricity at 76.7% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • military expenditure of $33 million — deterrence costs money, and this treasury is not paying
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • With a nominal GDP of $17 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 38.2% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 34 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • life expectancy 69 years — lives cut short by preventable causes: poverty, disease, violence, or a health system that never arrived
  • corruption-control percentile of 22 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 28 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 35 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Thongloun Sisoulith President PWR 4344.85 / 10051.1–12.554.342.48.057.553.546.3
#118Angola
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a regional power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • With 17 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Growth trend of 3.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • A reserves cushion of 7 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • population growth 3.3% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 38.98 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • rent capture: rents captured — a sovereign fund banks the windfall — booms end, but funds compound
  • energy standing: an energy exporter — it sells power to the world — exporters set terms, importers receive them
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 14.5%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • $5 billion — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Inflation of 28.2% — whether it melts wages running hot or freezes demand running cold, it betrays everyone who saves.
  • fertility 5.45 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • infant mortality 46 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • median age 16 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • a statehood history of 51 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • control of corruption at 15 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule of law at 22 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • export structure: a one-commodity economy — fuel is the budget — prosperity with a single point of failure
João Lourenço President PWR 4544.42 / 10048.9–20.542.642.98.085.035.358.8
#119Montenegro
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • At $27,900 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $27,900 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • At 3.3%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • fertility 1.8 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the diplomatic record reads a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — states that honor signatures get invited to write the next ones
  • internet penetration at 90.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • 60.3% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $8 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At 14.1%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • population growth 0.5% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 600,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • urbanization 68.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • constitutional stability of 20 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • continuous statehood of just 510 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Milojko Spajić Prime Minister PWR 5242.19 / 10046.4–12.562.354.89.357.578.044.1
#120Democratic Republic of the Congo
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • defense spending at 1.2% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • Public debt of 16.0% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • A growth trend of 6.2%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Unemployment of 4.6% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • population 119.04 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 3.1% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the alliance record reads a steady ally — powers remember who stood beside them when it cost something
  • critical-mineral endowment: cobalt — ~70% of world mine output — whoever holds the matter of the transition holds a leash on the future
  • export structure: commodity-heavy exports — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • an agricultural base of 10 distinct crops and products — food security is written in fields, not in futures contracts

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Prosperity per person of $1,500 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • infant mortality 55 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • fertility 5.42 children per woman — a rate at war with stability: explosive growth the economy cannot absorb, or a demographic winter no policy has cracked
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • control of corruption at 8 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule of law at 10 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — when the shock comes, this country discovers it never packed
  • only 31.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
Félix Tshisekedi President PWR 4141.48 / 10050.7–41.738.937.98.057.548.360.9
#121Cyprus
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.7% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • At 1.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $53,300 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $53,300 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • life expectancy 80 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 7 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 91.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • FX reserves covering 0 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $36 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.9% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • urbanization 67.0% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 1.33 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 23.8% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Nikos Christodoulides President PWR 4941.26 / 10048.9–12.562.250.08.057.535.438.3
#122Cameroon
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a defense burden of 1.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • At 3.6% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 32.5% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 4.5%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 31.52 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • population growth 2.4% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • 63.4% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • 63.9% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Nominal GDP of $51 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $4,900 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • infant mortality 44 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • fertility 3.87 children per woman — a rate at war with stability: explosive growth the economy cannot absorb, or a demographic winter no policy has cracked
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • corruption-control percentile of 18 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 25 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Paul Biya President PWR 2740.67 / 10051.5–12.550.544.18.057.546.637.6
#123Bosnia and Herzegovina
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • With 15 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • At 1.7%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At 40.3% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • life expectancy 78 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • internet penetration at 83.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $28 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $65 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 50.3% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • median age 45 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • population growth 0.7% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • a statehood history of 34 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 34 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • carbon intensity of 638 gCO2/kWh — every kilowatt-hour carries a debt to the atmosphere
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Borjana Krišto Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers PWR 3939.34 / 10049.0–10.054.865.39.357.548.533.0
#124Sudan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • a defense burden of 1.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • A growth trend of 8.3%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • With 13 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • A PPP GDP of $94 billion: the real, street-level size of the economy once prices stop lying.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 50.47 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 2.5% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • 4,500 years of unbroken statehood — nations that old do not improvise their survival
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • at war — a state at war judges itself on survival first, and everything else is a footnote
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • At 0 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $1,900 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • urbanization 36.3% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 39 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • the current constitutional order is 70 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 26.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council PWR 1738.64 / 10052.4–12.539.140.99.357.545.050.9
#125Papua New Guinea
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Unemployment of 2.8% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • A growth trend of 4.9%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Inflation of 0.6% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.2% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • population 10.27 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $33 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • PPP GDP of $45 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • urbanization 13.7% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 31 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • fertility 3.72 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • a statehood history of 51 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 51 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 24.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
James Marape Prime Minister PWR 6038.41 / 10050.2–12.545.847.18.057.556.346.8
#126Belize
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • defense spending at 1.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • Growth trend of 5.5% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 3.3%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Unemployment of 7.0% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • fertility 2.02 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • median age 27 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • low-carbon electricity at 88.9% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • carbon intensity of 155 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • military spending of just $35 million — an army funded like a department store
  • Nominal GDP of $4 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • PPP GDP of $6 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • urbanization 46.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 422,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • population growth 1.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • a statehood history of 45 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 45 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Johnny Briceño Prime Minister PWR 5438.39 / 10046.3–12.564.047.08.057.556.444.3
#127Haiti
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • a middle power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • At 33.9% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • A reserves cushion of 6 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • A growth trend of 0.7%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • fertility 2.39 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 25 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 222 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • statistical completeness of 83.3% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • a food base spanning 10 products — a country that can feed itself bargains with everyone and bows to no one

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Unemployment of 15.1% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • At 4 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • infant mortality 35 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 59.7% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • control of corruption at 8 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 10 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • rule of law at 12 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — a crisis away from empty shelves and rationed fuel
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Alix Didier Fils-Aimé Transitional Prime Minister PWR 2938.18 / 10055.5–12.535.543.38.057.543.531.1
#128Belarus
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • a CSTO collective-defense pact — it does not face the dark alone; the paperwork says who shows up
  • Unemployment of 3.4% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • At 33.2% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At $29,000 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • infant mortality 2 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • fertility 1.45 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 92.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • carbon intensity of 313 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 2 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • Nominal GDP of $76 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • social cohesion: strained — sanctions and unrest weigh on it — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • population growth 0.4% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • median age 42 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • continuous statehood of just 35 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 35 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • rule-of-law percentile of 25 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • renewables at 1.9% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Alexander Lukashenka President PWR 2438.10 / 10050.8–10.060.564.19.326.743.744.9
#129Trinidad and Tobago
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Labor productivity of $31,700 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $31,700 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 4.6% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • fertility 1.63 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • life expectancy 76 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 85.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • With a nominal GDP of $26 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • $6 billion — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $43 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 53.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • population 1.41 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 64 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • the current constitutional order is 64 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 0.1% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
  • just 0.1% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Kamla Persad-Bissessar Prime Minister PWR 5338.02 / 10048.3–12.557.055.28.057.551.235.1
#130Eritrea
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • A growth trend of 5.0%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 5.6% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 7.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 6.42 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — the national fabric holds, and ordinary people can plan a life without fear of the ground moving under them
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • With a nominal GDP of $3 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $3 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • Prosperity per person of $700 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • infant mortality 39 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 43.3% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • life expectancy 67 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • continuous statehood of just 33 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 33 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • just 11.4% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • internet access at 20.0% — the digital economy is a rumor for most of the population
Isaias Afwerki President PWR 2037.00 / 10049.6–39.542.842.68.057.536.549.4
#131Bhutan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • Inflation of 2.8% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • A growth trend of 6.5%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 2.9% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • median age 31 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • fertility 1.75 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the current constitutional order has stood 119 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • low-carbon electricity at 100.0% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • renewable electricity at 100.0% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • carbon intensity of 24 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • Nominal GDP of $3 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Public debt of 111.0% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • urbanization 44.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 23 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • population growth 0.9% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • a statehood history of 119 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 5 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Tshering Tobgay Prime Minister PWR 6136.89 / 10044.0–12.568.550.38.057.542.757.9
#132Yemen
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • command of 1 world chokepoints — geography this valuable is a weapon you never have to fire
  • With 9 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Public debt of 68.1% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Growth trend of 0.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 34.51 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 2.2% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • statistical completeness of 83.3% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the alliance record reads a steady ally — powers remember who stood beside them when it cost something
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • the energy ledger reads an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • At $200 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • At 17.1%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • Labor productivity of $200 per worker — a workforce running hard just to stand still.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • infant mortality 42 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 39.8% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • a statehood history of 36 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • corruption-control percentile of 8 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 10 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 14.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • only 5 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Rashad al-Alimi Chairman, Presidential Leadership Council PWR 3335.57 / 10053.4–48.232.233.79.357.541.832.4
#133Federated States of Micronesia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • A reserves cushion of 18 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • At 27.8% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 5.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • fertility 2.17 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 28 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 75.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • Nominal GDP of $471 million — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $433 million in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • urbanization 23.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 100,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 0.8% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • continuous statehood of just 40 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 40 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Wesley W. Simina President PWR 5435.56 / 10050.0–12.548.359.68.057.553.026.2
#134Djibouti
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 3.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Inflation of 2.1% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Growth trend of 6.2% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 33.7% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • fertility 2.09 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 26 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • internet penetration at 65.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • FX reserves covering 0 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At 25.9%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • Nominal GDP of $4 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • infant mortality 44 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • life expectancy 65 years — lives cut short by preventable causes: poverty, disease, violence, or a health system that never arrived
  • population 1.01 million — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • continuous statehood of just 49 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 49 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • a food base of 7 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Ismaïl Omar Guelleh President PWR 3735.36 / 10046.7–39.548.144.68.057.548.352.8
#135Liberia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At 2.9% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Public debt of 28.3% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • A growth trend of 4.9%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.3% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • population 5.56 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the current constitutional order has stood 179 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • carbon intensity of 435 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • military expenditure of $33 million — deterrence costs money, and this treasury is not paying
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • Nominal GDP of $5 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At $9 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • infant mortality 55 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 53.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • life expectancy 61 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • a statehood history of 179 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 24.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Joseph Boakai President PWR 4534.61 / 10047.4–12.547.056.08.057.560.951.1
#136Guinea
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.1% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • A growth trend of 6.6%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Unemployment of 5.3% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • At 41.8% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.7% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • population 14.37 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • renewable electricity at 74.8% — power drawn from sun, wind, and water rather than from someone else's wells
  • 74.8% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • carbon intensity of 182 gCO2/kWh — electricity this clean is a license to electrify everything

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 2 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • With a nominal GDP of $25 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • infant mortality 45 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 38.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • fertility 4.75 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • continuous statehood of just 68 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • constitutional stability of 68 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 27.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • only 7 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
Mamadi Doumbouya President PWR 4634.57 / 10047.1–31.750.542.88.057.549.445.7
#137Botswana
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 3.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 2.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At 19.6% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • Economic diversification of 11 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • fertility 2.73 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 25 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 81.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • At 23.2%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • With a nominal GDP of $19 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • $5 billion — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • infant mortality 27 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • life expectancy 66 years — lives cut short by preventable causes: poverty, disease, violence, or a health system that never arrived
  • population growth 1.3% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • a statehood history of 60 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 60 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • renewables at 0.4% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • low-carbon power at 0.4% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Duma Boko President PWR 5034.42 / 10049.5–12.547.853.48.057.556.931.3
#138Cabo Verde
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • Inflation of 1.0% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Growth trend of 6.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Labor productivity of $9,900 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • fertility 2.08 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 29 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • internet penetration at 74.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • military spending of just $17 million — an army funded like a department store
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • With a nominal GDP of $3 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At 127.6% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • PPP GDP of $5 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • infant mortality 21 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • population 611,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • population growth 1.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • a statehood history of 51 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 51 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Francisco Carvalho Prime Minister PWR 4233.38 / 10046.3–12.553.848.58.057.547.753.7
#139Solomon Islands
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • At 1.5% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Public debt of 15.4% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • FX reserves covering 9 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • life expectancy 77 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • fertility 2.72 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • With a nominal GDP of $2 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $2 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • Economic diversification of 3 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • urbanization 26.0% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 739,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • infant mortality 18 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • a statehood history of 48 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 48 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 9.1% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • renewables at 9.1% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Matthew Wale Prime Minister PWR 4832.61 / 10047.2–12.552.252.18.057.556.539.1
#140Rwanda
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • contributing 5900 UN peacekeepers — the kind of credibility no speech can buy
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Growth trend of 9.1% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Inflation of 1.8% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Public debt of 37.3% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 13.62 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • population growth 2.0% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 56.6% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • power-sector carbon intensity 301 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $14 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $3,300 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • urbanization 17.9% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 27 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • life expectancy 66 years — lives cut short by preventable causes: poverty, disease, violence, or a health system that never arrived
  • continuous statehood of just 64 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • constitutional stability of 64 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • internet access at 34.0% — the digital economy is a rumor for most of the population
Paul Kagame President PWR 4332.21 / 10045.5–12.545.849.618.757.562.657.6
#141Republic of the Congo
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • defense spending at 1.2% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • Inflation of 3.1% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • With 9 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Growth trend of 2.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.4% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • population 6.10 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • At 128.7% of GDP, the state does not govern — it negotiates with its creditors.
  • At 19.7%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • infant mortality 29 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • fertility 3.72 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • median age 20 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Denis Sassou Nguesso President PWR 3231.67 / 10049.4–12.544.744.98.057.548.840.2
#142Zambia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • defense spending at 1.3% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • At 6.0% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • A growth trend of 3.9%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Economic diversification of 9 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population growth 2.5% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • population 22.02 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • an agricultural base of 11 distinct crops and products — food security is written in fields, not in futures contracts

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Nominal GDP of $26 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At 3 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • urbanization 46.3% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 30 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • fertility 3.67 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • a statehood history of 62 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the current constitutional order is 62 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • only 33.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
Hakainde Hichilema President PWR 5630.26 / 10047.5–12.546.549.08.057.557.243.4
#143Syria
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • 170,000 troops on active duty — manpower that turns doctrine into something an enemy can count
  • a middle power — when it speaks, the room rearranges itself
  • Economic diversification of 9 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • A growth trend of 1.2%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • A PPP GDP of $99 billion: the real, street-level size of the economy once prices stop lying.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • fertility 2.64 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • population 24.26 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • 5,000 years of unbroken statehood — nations that old do not improvise their survival
  • civilizational continuity: one of humanity's oldest continuous civilizations — empires pass, but deep roots steady the state long after the armies march home
  • data transparency at 83.3% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • a food base spanning 8 products — a country that can feed itself bargains with everyone and bows to no one

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Nominal GDP of $20 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • Inflation of 94.1% — whether it melts wages running hot or freezes demand running cold, it betrays everyone who saves.
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • urbanization 57.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 1.6% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • corruption-control percentile of 8 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule of law at 10 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • government effectiveness at 10 — the state cannot pave a road or deliver a letter, and it shows
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — when the shock comes, this country discovers it never packed
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Ahmed al-Sharaa President PWR 5429.54 / 10054.3–12.544.536.29.322.533.449.1
#144North Macedonia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • NATO Article 5 cover — an attack on one is an attack on all, and the treaties are signed in ink
  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • At 3.5%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $24,500 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $24,500 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • fertility 1.53 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • treaty compliance: a treaty-keeper — signatures mean something here — and in the long memory of diplomacy, nothing compounds like a kept promise
  • internet penetration at 87.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $17 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At 13.5%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • population growth 0.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • urbanization 59.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 2.14 million — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • continuous statehood of just 35 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 35 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Hristijan Mickoski Prime Minister PWR 4529.53 / 10044.6–10.054.159.19.357.576.539.0
#145Vanuatu
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • A reserves cushion of 12 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • Unemployment of 5.1% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • A growth trend of 3.5%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • fertility 2.46 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • life expectancy 75 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • 46.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • With a nominal GDP of $1 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $1 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • urbanization 26.0% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 318,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 1.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • continuous statehood of just 46 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 46 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • a food base of 4 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • low-carbon power at 25.0% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Jotham Napat Prime Minister PWR 5229.51 / 10045.3–12.553.951.68.057.554.746.1
#146Mozambique
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Unemployment of 3.6% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • At 4.1%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Economic diversification of 10 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 34.21 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 2.5% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $1,500 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • At $1,500 per worker, the economy throws bodies at problems instead of brains.
  • infant mortality 56 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • urbanization 38.8% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • a statehood history of 51 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • the current constitutional order is 51 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 20.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Daniel Chapo President PWR 4029.18 / 10048.6–21.544.645.18.057.545.934.3
#147Samoa
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • Inflation of 2.2% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • A growth trend of 6.8%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • FX reserves covering 10 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • fertility 2.29 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 27 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • internet penetration at 58.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • Nominal GDP of $1 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $2 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • urbanization 17.5% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population 210,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 0.7% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • a statehood history of 64 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • the current constitutional order is 64 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt Prime Minister PWR 4628.03 / 10043.1–12.557.156.98.057.552.555.9
#148Moldova
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At 1.5% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 34.3% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 4.7%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • fertility 1.27 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • infant mortality 13 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • internet penetration at 80.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $18 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $39 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 43.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.6% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • life expectancy 70 years — lives cut short by preventable causes: poverty, disease, violence, or a health system that never arrived
  • a statehood history of 35 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 35 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • just 11.7% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • renewables at 11.5% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Vasile Tofan Prime Minister PWR 4428.01 / 10046.9–10.055.860.98.057.547.519.8
#149Uganda
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • A growth trend of 6.2%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 3.0% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 3.3%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • population growth 3.1% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 50.86 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • an agricultural base of 10 distinct crops and products — food security is written in fields, not in futures contracts

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • At $2,900 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • urbanization 26.8% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • fertility 5.08 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • median age 16 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • a statehood history of 64 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • constitutional stability of 64 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 15.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Yoweri Museveni President PWR 3627.67 / 10045.9–12.546.549.98.057.558.750.2
#150Mauritius
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • FX reserves covering 12 months of imports — a war chest that lets the country stare down any storm.
  • At $27,300 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $27,300 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • infant mortality 11 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • fertility 1.36 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • internet penetration at 80.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $15 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $34 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 40.9% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 1.31 million — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • a statehood history of 58 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 58 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 7.6% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
  • a food base of 4 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
Navin Ramgoolam Prime Minister PWR 5026.72 / 10043.8–12.555.452.38.057.557.847.3
#151Sierra Leone
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At 3.2% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • A growth trend of 4.3%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Public debt of 54.9% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.2% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • population 9.33 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • low-carbon electricity at 95.2% — clean electrons are becoming the passport of modern industry
  • 95.2% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • power-sector carbon intensity 47 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • military spending of just $38 million — an army funded like a department store
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $8 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • FX reserves covering 2 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • infant mortality 70 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 44.3% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • life expectancy 59 years — lives cut short by preventable causes: poverty, disease, violence, or a health system that never arrived
  • continuous statehood of just 65 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 21.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Julius Maada Bio President PWR 4626.18 / 10045.9–12.551.341.18.057.557.340.5
#152Togo
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.2% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • Inflation of 2.9% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Unemployment of 2.0% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Growth trend of 5.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population growth 2.4% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • population 9.14 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • an agricultural base of 10 distinct crops and products — food security is written in fields, not in futures contracts

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $10 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $27 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • urbanization 44.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 34 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • fertility 4.03 children per woman — a rate at war with stability: explosive growth the economy cannot absorb, or a demographic winter no policy has cracked
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • constitutional stability of 66 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 20.7% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • renewables at 20.7% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Faure Gnassingbé President of the Council of Ministers PWR 3625.70 / 10046.4–12.547.142.78.057.544.448.8
#153Equatorial Guinea
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a defense burden of 1.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • At 4.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Public debt of 43.3% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • Labor productivity of $15,500 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • population growth 3.1% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • urbanization 74.4% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • internet penetration at 60.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • hard power falling — the tectonic plates move against it — decline is a direction, not a mood, and this is the direction
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • Growth trend of -2.5% — an economy standing still while the world sprints past it.
  • Economic diversification of 3 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • infant mortality 76 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • fertility 4.05 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • life expectancy 63 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • a statehood history of 58 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the current constitutional order is 58 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo President PWR 2324.30 / 10046.7–12.553.547.28.057.546.821.2
#154Zimbabwe
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • hard power flat — treading water — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • a middle power — weight in the world that was earned, not assigned
  • Growth trend of 5.1% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • With 9 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • Unemployment of 8.6% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 17.47 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 1.8% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • critical minerals: lithium — Africa's largest reserves — the raw material of batteries and missiles alike, and others need it more than it needs them
  • export structure: commodity-heavy exports — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • At 0 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Inflation of 104.7% — whether it melts wages running hot or freezes demand running cold, it betrays everyone who saves.
  • urbanization 32.5% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 32 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • social cohesion: strained — sanctions and unrest weigh on it — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • a statehood history of 46 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • corruption-control percentile of 12 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule-of-law percentile of 15 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
  • rent capture: rents leak — no fund, no cushion — geology pays, but nothing stays
Emmerson Mnangagwa President PWR 3824.27 / 10051.2–29.036.941.78.022.549.256.1
#155Mauritania
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 2.4% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • Inflation of 2.5% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Growth trend of 4.6% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Labor productivity of $6,400 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population growth 2.9% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • population 5.20 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • Nominal GDP of $11 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • fertility 4.76 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • infant mortality 29 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 57.7% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Mohamed Ould Ghazouani President PWR 4722.55 / 10044.0–12.546.748.18.057.550.658.0
#156Mali
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a defense burden of 4.3% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • At 3.1% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Growth trend of 5.3% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Public debt of 36.0% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population growth 2.9% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • population 22.63 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • power-sector carbon intensity 394 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • Economic diversification of 3 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • With a nominal GDP of $27 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • infant mortality 55 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • fertility 5.26 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • institutional memory: a state that has collapsed within living memory — states that have tasted collapse govern as if it could happen again
  • the current constitutional order is 66 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — when the shock comes, this country discovers it never packed
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Assimi Goïta President of the Transition PWR 3622.12 / 10044.6–12.543.541.78.057.548.163.4
#157Antigua and Barbuda
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • At $29,600 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $29,600 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • A growth trend of 4.6%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • fertility 1.92 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 34 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • life expectancy 78 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • data transparency at 83.3% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 78.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • With a nominal GDP of $2 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $3 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • Economic diversification of 3 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • urbanization 24.3% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 103,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 1.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • a statehood history of 45 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 45 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 5.6% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • renewables at 5.6% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Gaston Browne Prime Minister PWR 5420.69 / 10042.3–12.553.846.18.057.560.149.4
#158Afghanistan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 3.3% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • A reserves cushion of 16 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • Economic diversification of 15 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • At 7.8% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population growth 2.9% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • population 49.47 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • 86.6% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • 86.6% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • power-sector carbon intensity 123 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At $2,000 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • At $2,000 per worker, the economy throws bodies at problems instead of brains.
  • urbanization 26.9% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • fertility 4.89 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • corruption-control percentile of 5 — graft is not a scandal here, it is the tax you pay to exist
  • rule-of-law percentile of 8 — law is a suggestion the powerful can afford to ignore
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 8 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 18.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — a crisis away from empty shelves and rationed fuel
Mohammad Hasan Akhund Acting Prime Minister PWR 2620.43 / 10045.4–12.540.146.98.057.541.256.8
#159Chad
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 3.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 1.1% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Growth trend of 4.6% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Public debt of 52.4% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • population growth 3.0% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 19.67 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • an agricultural base of 10 distinct crops and products — food security is written in fields, not in futures contracts

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $21 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $2,600 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • infant mortality 61 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 24.4% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • fertility 5.13 children per woman — a rate at war with stability: explosive growth the economy cannot absorb, or a demographic winter no policy has cracked
  • continuous statehood of just 66 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • the current constitutional order is 66 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 13.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Mahamat Idriss Déby President PWR 4020.32 / 10044.2–12.543.243.98.057.549.160.2
#160Grenada
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Inflation of 1.1% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Growth trend of 4.1% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At $17,700 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • fertility 1.89 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 35 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 75.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • internet penetration at 74.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • With a nominal GDP of $1 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $2 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • urbanization 37.1% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.2% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 115,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • a statehood history of 52 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 52 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Dickon Mitchell Prime Minister PWR 4820.28 / 10041.0–12.557.853.38.057.562.247.7
#161Dominica
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • At 2.6%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At $18,700 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $18,700 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • fertility 2.01 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • life expectancy 78 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 83.3% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 84.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • Nominal GDP of $689 million — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • PPP GDP of $1 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • population growth 0.0% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 75,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • urbanization 72.0% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • a statehood history of 48 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 48 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • low-carbon power at 13.3% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • only 13.3% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Roosevelt Skerrit Prime Minister PWR 6119.01 / 10040.8–12.557.656.98.057.560.843.2
#162Barbados
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • A reserves cushion of 9 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • At 0.5%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $19,900 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • life expectancy 79 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • fertility 1.24 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 80.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • military spending of just $50 million — an army funded like a department store
  • Public debt of 133.2% of GDP — a mortgage on the unborn, serviced before schools are funded.
  • PPP GDP of $6 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • urbanization 31.4% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.4% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 304,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • continuous statehood of just 60 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • constitutional stability of 60 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • just 8.2% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • only 8.2% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Mia Mottley Prime Minister PWR 6917.80 / 10041.4–12.553.854.28.057.556.943.2
#163Benin
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • Growth trend of 7.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 1.2%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At 1.8% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • population growth 3.3% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 15.19 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At 4 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • Nominal GDP of $21 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • infant mortality 51 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • fertility 5.3 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • urbanization 50.1% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • the current constitutional order is 66 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 3.0% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • renewables at 3.0% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Romuald Wadagni President PWR 3816.89 / 10043.8–12.539.745.68.057.549.257.2
#164Maldives
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • At 1.4%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • A growth trend of 5.7%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Unemployment of 4.7% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • median age 32 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • fertility 1.7 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • internet penetration at 85.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $7 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 42.0% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.2% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • infant mortality 23 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • a statehood history of 61 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 61 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 7.1% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • renewables at 7.1% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Mohamed Muizzu President PWR 5016.77 / 10040.3–12.553.955.78.057.551.953.8
#165Burkina Faso
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • defense spending at 4.5% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • Growth trend of 5.1% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 4.2%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Unemployment of 5.2% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 23.49 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • population growth 2.4% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • an agricultural base of 9 distinct crops and products — food security is written in fields, not in futures contracts

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • Prosperity per person of $2,500 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • Labor productivity of $2,500 per worker — a workforce running hard just to stand still.
  • infant mortality 48 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 32.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • continuous statehood of just 66 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the survival record reads a state that has collapsed within living memory — collapsed states rebuild buildings faster than they rebuild trust
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 17.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • renewables at 12.1% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Ibrahim Traoré Transitional President PWR 3616.68 / 10046.2–12.536.741.18.057.545.342.4
#166Somalia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • defense spending at 6.0% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • A growth trend of 3.5%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 6.8%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At 93.0% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • population growth 3.3% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 20.32 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — in a world of fair-weather friends, a kept alliance is a currency that never devalues
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • a food base spanning 10 products — a country that can feed itself bargains with everyone and bows to no one

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • Unemployment of 18.9% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • At $1,400 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • At $1,400 per worker, the economy throws bodies at problems instead of brains.
  • fertility 6.38 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • infant mortality 81 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • social cohesion: fractured — war or mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • control of corruption at 3 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • rule of law at 5 on the global percentile — here the rules are whatever the powerful woke up feeling
  • government-effectiveness percentile of 5 — a bureaucracy that exists mainly to employ itself
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 19.0% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — when the shock comes, this country discovers it never packed
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud President PWR 3316.58 / 10045.9–21.529.137.88.057.551.356.4
#167The Gambia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Growth trend of 5.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 6.5% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Economic diversification of 9 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population growth 2.1% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — the state functions as a home rather than a hazard, and that is the foundation every other ranking stands on
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • internet penetration at 46.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale

What drags it down

  • military spending of just $15 million — an army funded like a department store
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • With a nominal GDP of $3 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $8 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • infant mortality 35 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 64.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • life expectancy 68 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • a statehood history of 61 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 61 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 0.0% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
  • low-carbon power at 0.0% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Adama Barrow President PWR 4716.46 / 10043.0–12.544.645.08.057.561.844.9
#168Timor-Leste
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 3.1% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 2.1%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • At 1.7% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • fertility 2.79 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 23 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • military spending of just $47 million — an army funded like a department store
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • Nominal GDP of $2 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $6 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • urbanization 32.5% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 41 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • population growth 1.3% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • continuous statehood of just 51 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 51 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • renewables at 0.0% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • just 0.0% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Xanana Gusmão Prime Minister PWR 5916.39 / 10043.7–12.546.657.78.057.546.930.1
#169Palestine
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • A growth trend of 15.5%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Public debt of 23.8% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • With 6 distinct industries, the economy does not stake the country on a lone harvest.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • life expectancy 76 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • urbanization 77.6% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • 4,500 years of unbroken statehood — nations that old do not improvise their survival
  • the survival record reads survived every shock of the modern era without state failure — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • 87.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • Unemployment of 24.5% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At 1 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • fertility 3.44 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • median age 22 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — cohesion is the one asset that cannot be merely adequate: torn, it voids every other number; merely holding, it is a fair-weather foundation
  • the diplomatic record reads a mostly reliable treaty partner — break enough treaties and the invitations to the table stop coming
  • the alliance record reads a steady ally — a reputation for leaving is the most expensive thing a state can carry into a negotiation
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 5 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Mohammad Mustafa Prime Minister PWR 4416.20 / 10043.7–12.545.147.38.057.545.341.6
#170Saint Kitts and Nevis
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Labor productivity of $31,300 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $31,300 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • Inflation of 3.6% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • fertility 1.76 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • infant mortality 7 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • data transparency at 75.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 76.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • With a nominal GDP of $1 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $1 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • urbanization 31.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 55,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • population growth 0.5% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • continuous statehood of just 43 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 43 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • a food base of 3 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Terrance Drew Prime Minister PWR 4915.10 / 10039.0–12.562.153.58.057.557.141.3
#171Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Inflation of 3.6% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At $18,700 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $18,700 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • fertility 1.73 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • life expectancy 77 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 76.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • Nominal GDP of $1 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $2 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • Unemployment of 18.1% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • urbanization 54.3% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population growth 0.1% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • population 101,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • continuous statehood of just 47 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 47 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • low-carbon power at 13.3% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
  • renewables at 13.3% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Godwin Friday Prime Minister PWR 4514.75 / 10040.4–12.551.651.08.057.559.746.7
#172Malta
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At 1.7%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $60,500 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $60,500 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • urbanization 94.9% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • life expectancy 83 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • infant mortality 4 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • 92.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • At 0 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • With a nominal GDP of $24 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • population growth 0.7% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 522,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • median age 42 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • a statehood history of 62 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 62 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 3 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • just 16.7% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
Robert Abela Prime Minister PWR 5014.72 / 10039.0–12.559.756.38.057.554.842.7
#173Lesotho
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 1.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 3.0% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • A growth trend of 2.4%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • Inflation of 6.1% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • fertility 2.49 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 24 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • internet penetration at 48.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • military expenditure of $34 million — deterrence costs money, and this treasury is not paying
  • Nominal GDP of $2 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • Unemployment of 16.2% — an army of idle hands, and idle hands in large numbers are how trouble starts.
  • PPP GDP of $6 billion — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • infant mortality 52 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 30.4% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • life expectancy 60 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • a statehood history of 60 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 60 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Sam Matekane Prime Minister PWR 4414.64 / 10043.4–12.540.953.68.057.541.644.9
#174Malawi
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Unemployment of 5.1% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • At 55.6% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • Growth trend of 1.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population 21.76 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • population growth 2.2% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 1 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • FX reserves covering 1 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $1,600 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • urbanization 18.3% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 28 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • median age 19 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • a statehood history of 62 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the current constitutional order is 62 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 18.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Peter Mutharika President PWR 4314.36 / 10044.9–12.541.742.98.057.555.525.8
#175Tonga
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 1.8% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • A reserves cushion of 11 months of imports: the central bank can outwait any panic.
  • At 2.2% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • At 3.2%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • fertility 2.59 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • life expectancy 78 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the record on crisis resilience says deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • internet penetration at 59.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • military expenditure of $9 million — deterrence costs money, and this treasury is not paying
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • Nominal GDP of $509 million — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • PPP GDP of $740 million — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • urbanization 23.2% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.4% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • population 105,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • continuous statehood of just 56 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 56 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 14.3% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • renewables at 14.3% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
Fatafehi Fakafānua Prime Minister PWR 4614.05 / 10039.5–12.557.154.08.057.551.542.7
#176Saint Lucia
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • Inflation of 0.1% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At $24,300 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $24,300 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • fertility 1.71 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • life expectancy 79 years — the body's verdict on everything else: the food, the clinics, the air, the peace; it all shows up here
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 83.3% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • 74.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • With a nominal GDP of $3 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $4 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • urbanization 19.2% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population growth 0.2% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 168,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • continuous statehood of just 47 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 47 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Philip J. Pierre Prime Minister PWR 5113.99 / 10039.9–12.556.049.28.057.558.740.5
#177Kiribati
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • At 22.9% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • A growth trend of 4.8%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 9.3%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • fertility 2.13 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • median age 27 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • data transparency at 66.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • internet penetration at 88.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • With a nominal GDP of $308 million, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $438 million — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • At 2 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • infant mortality 30 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • urbanization 57.8% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population 117,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • a statehood history of 47 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 47 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 4 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Taneti Maamau President PWR 5613.66 / 10040.4–12.550.852.78.057.555.442.4
#178Niger
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.2% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — trajectories matter more than snapshots, and this one points up
  • Unemployment of 0.4% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Growth trend of 7.7% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Public debt of 45.2% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • population growth 3.6% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 27.32 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • the energy ledger reads an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel, and nothing disciplines foreign ministries like a surplus of power

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • At $1,800 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • Labor productivity of $1,800 per worker — a workforce running hard just to stand still.
  • fertility 6.55 children per woman — a rate at war with stability: explosive growth the economy cannot absorb, or a demographic winter no policy has cracked
  • urbanization 17.1% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • infant mortality 63 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • institutional memory: a state that has collapsed within living memory — states that have tasted collapse govern as if it could happen again
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • just 2.5% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • only 2.5% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Abdourahamane Tiani Transitional President PWR 3913.02 / 10043.0–12.536.439.88.057.549.057.6
#179Comoros
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Inflation of 1.0% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • At 27.7% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • At 3.9% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • fertility 2.52 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 23 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the record on crisis resilience says thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — and history punishes states that cannot bend
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — the countries that survive shocks are the ones that rehearsed for them

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • Nominal GDP of $2 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $3 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • infant mortality 53 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • urbanization 30.1% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • life expectancy 67 years — lives cut short by preventable causes: poverty, disease, violence, or a health system that never arrived
  • a statehood history of 51 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 51 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • renewables at 0.0% of electricity — the grid still runs on yesterday's fuels, priced by yesterday's powers
  • low-carbon power at 0.0% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
Azali Assoumani President PWR 3712.75 / 10042.7–12.541.550.58.057.544.140.8
#180Eswatini
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a defense burden of 1.4% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • At 2.6%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Public debt of 35.9% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • A growth trend of 3.4%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • fertility 2.64 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 24 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • data transparency at 100.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 96.4% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else
  • power-sector carbon intensity 142 gCO2/kWh — clean electrons are cheap electrons in the long run
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • At 34.4%, the economy has no room for its own people — the most expensive waste a country can afford.
  • Nominal GDP of $5 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • urbanization 24.8% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • infant mortality 38 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • life expectancy 60 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • continuous statehood of just 58 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 58 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
  • the energy ledger: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — sovereignty stops where the fuel contract ends
Mswati III King PWR 7412.40 / 10040.6–12.550.952.58.057.544.438.2
#181Central African Republic
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • At 3.0%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Unemployment of 5.9% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Public debt of 56.0% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 5.75 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • population growth 1.7% — a rising headcount that keeps the economy young and the labor force expanding
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — in a world of fair-weather friends, a kept alliance is a currency that never devalues
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • a food base spanning 8 products — a country that can feed itself bargains with everyone and bows to no one

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • Nominal GDP of $3 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $1,100 per head, poverty is not an accident here, it is the architecture.
  • At $1,100 per worker, the economy throws bodies at problems instead of brains.
  • infant mortality 79 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • urbanization 43.6% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • life expectancy 56 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • a statehood history of 66 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • institutional memory: a state that has collapsed within living memory — states that have tasted collapse govern as if it could happen again
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 8.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • strategic reserves: no strategic reserves to speak of — a crisis away from empty shelves and rationed fuel
Faustin-Archange Touadéra President PWR 3511.40 / 10042.8–12.539.747.08.057.546.034.7
#182Palau
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Inflation of 2.2% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Growth trend of 4.1% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Labor productivity of $15,800 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • fertility 1.7 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 35 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 66.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • With a nominal GDP of $282 million, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $280 million — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • population 22,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 0.4% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — where the fabric is torn, nothing else on this page survives contact with reality; where it merely holds, it is thinner than the ranking requires
  • continuous statehood of just 32 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • the current constitutional order is 32 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • internet access at 27.0% — the digital economy is a rumor for most of the population
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Surangel Whipps Jr. President PWR 6211.18 / 10036.9–12.558.153.18.057.560.347.8
#183Seychelles
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • defense spending at 1.5% of GDP — the sweet spot: serious enough to deter, disciplined enough to afford
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • At $29,200 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $29,200 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • Inflation of 0.3% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • fertility 1.8 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • infant mortality 10 per thousand live births — a health system that keeps its smallest citizens alive, the quietest proof a state actually works
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • data transparency at 91.7% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 87.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • military expenditure of $33 million — deterrence costs money, and this treasury is not paying
  • Nominal GDP of $2 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $4 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • urbanization 58.8% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • population 98,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 0.5% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • a statehood history of 50 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 50 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • just 14.3% low-carbon electricity — every megawatt arrives with a smoke plume attached
  • only 14.3% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
Patrick Herminie President PWR 4411.17 / 10037.1–12.558.648.68.057.559.948.6
#184South Sudan
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 2.0% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • Growth trend of 5.2% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 86.6% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • Unemployment of 12.5% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • population growth 4.5% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 12.70 million — raw demographic weight: a market and a manpower reserve the world cannot ignore
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • statistical completeness of 91.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • alliance fidelity: a steady ally — in a world of fair-weather friends, a kept alliance is a currency that never devalues
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept
  • an agricultural base of 8 distinct crops and products — food security is written in fields, not in futures contracts

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • Prosperity per person of $400 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • At 0 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • At 0 months of imports, the reserves cushion is a rumor, not a shield.
  • infant mortality 58 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • urbanization 21.2% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • fertility 4.98 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • continuous statehood of just 15 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 15 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • control of corruption at 5 — the till is open and the powerful have the keys
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 9.0% online — a country half-offline cannot compete in a fully online world
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — when the shock comes, this country discovers it never packed
Salva Kiir President PWR 2210.23 / 10044.8–12.528.434.38.057.545.738.9
#185Guinea-Bissau
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a defense burden of 1.2% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • At 2.7% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Growth trend of 5.3% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Inflation of 3.8% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • population growth 2.5% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — the state functions as a home rather than a hazard, and that is the foundation every other ranking stands on
  • data transparency at 83.3% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound
  • stockpiles: no strategic reserves to speak of — insurance you hope never to use and regret never having bought

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • military expenditure of $25 million — deterrence costs money, and this treasury is not paying
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • With a nominal GDP of $2 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $6 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • Economic diversification of 3 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • infant mortality 45 per thousand live births — the health system's report card, judged by the newborns it failed to save
  • fertility 4.59 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • urbanization 45.5% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • continuous statehood of just 53 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • constitutional stability of 53 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 6 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Horta Inta-a Transitional President PWR 2610.00 / 10039.4–12.545.948.98.057.542.042.0
#186Monaco
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • hard power rising — growth plus rearmament point up — power compounds like interest, and this account is growing
  • Labor productivity of $270,100 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $270,100 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • A growth trend of 6.8%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • life expectancy 89 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • urbanization 100.0% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • infant mortality 1 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • the current constitutional order has stood 607 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • crisis resilience: deep shock absorbers — low debt, fat reserves, real growth — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • internet penetration at 99.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $9 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • With a nominal GDP of $10 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • median age 57 — a lopsided age pyramid: cradles without classrooms on one side, pensioners without successors on the other
  • population 32,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 0.8% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • continuous statehood of just 607 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • data transparency at 58.3% — the numbers are missing because someone prefers them that way
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 0 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Christophe Mirmand Minister of State PWR 4110.00 / 10034.6–12.565.254.88.057.542.855.8
#187Marshall Islands
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Public debt of 41.6% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • A growth trend of 2.5%: momentum that turns investors into believers and skeptics into historians.
  • At 6.2%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • fertility 2.62 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • median age 25 — squarely in the productive sweet spot: enough youth to drive growth, enough experience to steer it
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 66.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • internet penetration at 66.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • Nominal GDP of $280 million — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • PPP GDP of $271 million — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • population 82,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • infant mortality 20 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • population growth 1.2% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • a statehood history of 40 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 40 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 0 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Hilda C. Heine President PWR 609.90 / 10037.2–12.558.853.78.057.555.225.7
#188Liechtenstein
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Labor productivity of $210,600 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • Prosperity per person of $210,600 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • Inflation of 2.8% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • life expectancy 83 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • fertility 1.69 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 307 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • internet penetration at 97.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • At $7 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • With a nominal GDP of $8 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • urbanization 14.6% — a rural majority stranded where development hasn't arrived: scattered, costly to serve, and slow to grow
  • population 41,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 0.7% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • a statehood history of 307 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • statistical completeness of 50.0% — a state that will not count itself cannot be held to account
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Brigitte Haas Prime Minister PWR 439.41 / 10037.4–12.558.761.48.057.534.815.0
#189Andorra
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • At $65,900 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • Prosperity per person of $65,900 — the average citizen lives at a standard most of the planet envies.
  • At 41.4% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • life expectancy 83 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • infant mortality 3 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • urbanization 87.8% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • constitutional stability of 748 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • crisis resilience: thin shock absorbers — one crisis away from trouble — the measure of whether the next shock is a chapter in the story or the end of it
  • internet penetration at 95.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • Nominal GDP of $4 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $5 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — a nameplate on an empty vault: no national savings to show for the boom years, just the receipts of spending.
  • median age 49 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • population growth 0.1% — the demographic engine idling or in reverse; no economy grows forever on a population that won't
  • population 85,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • continuous statehood of just 748 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • treaty compliance: a mostly reliable treaty partner — a signature here is a photograph, not a commitment
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Xavier Espot Head of Government PWR 438.99 / 10032.5–12.564.060.48.057.551.849.4
#190Burundi
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • a defense burden of 3.5% — in the sustainable band, neither freeloading on allies nor bankrupting the treasury for guns
  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • At 1.0% unemployment, labor is scarce and workers have leverage — exactly as it should be.
  • Growth trend of 3.9% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • Public debt of 48.4% of GDP — the state owes little and answers to no creditor.
  • population growth 3.0% — demographic momentum on its side: more workers, more consumers, more future, every year
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • population 13.59 million — scale that turns every trend into a global event: a consumer base, a workforce, and a voting bloc all in one
  • statistical completeness of 100.0% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • 66.7% of electricity from renewables — every point gained is a lever pulled back from the fossil market
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • 69.2% of power from low-carbon sources — a grid that pollutes less can tax more and shame everyone else

What drags it down

  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • With a nominal GDP of $2 billion, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • Prosperity per person of $800 — a population sharing a pie too small to feed its ambition.
  • FX reserves covering 0 months of imports — too thin to survive a real shock without outside help.
  • urbanization 14.8% — most citizens still live off the grid of modernity, far from the hospitals, schools, and jobs that build wealth
  • fertility 4.94 children per woman — either births outrunning the schools, clinics, and jobs meant to raise them, or cradles so empty the future is quietly canceling itself
  • infant mortality 35 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • a statehood history of 64 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • internet access at 11.0% — the digital economy is a rumor for most of the population
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Évariste Ndayishimiye President PWR 388.89 / 10036.7–12.546.248.78.057.546.341.6
#191Nauru
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At 2.6%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • Labor productivity of $12,600 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • At $12,600 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • urbanization 100.0% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • fertility 2.52 children per woman — replacement-level balance: generations renewing themselves without strain or collapse
  • median age 28 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • data transparency at 75.0% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • internet penetration at 82.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • commodity exposure: a diversified export base — when prices fall, this economy keeps standing
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • With a nominal GDP of $160 million, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • PPP GDP of $151 million — on the ground, where people actually live, the economy barely registers.
  • At 3 industries, the whole economy leans on a narrow base — and narrow bases crack.
  • population 10,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • population growth 0.4% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • life expectancy 68 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • a statehood history of 58 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • the current constitutional order is 58 years old — constitutions are meant to outlive their authors
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • only 0.0% renewable electricity — the energy future is being built somewhere else
  • low-carbon power at 0.0% — the electricity mix is a carbon confession
David Adeang President PWR 478.88 / 10036.3–12.553.056.08.057.550.321.4
#192Tuvalu
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — allies sleep better knowing this capital keeps its word
  • At 47.2% of GDP, public debt is a footnote, not a leash.
  • Growth trend of 2.8% — the economy expands year after year, and sustained expansion is how small powers become large ones.
  • At 11.5%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • median age 28 — the demographic engine at its most balanced: workers outnumber dependents, and the future has both energy and memory
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • fertility 2.76 children per woman — the rare demographic equilibrium: the nation reproduces its future at exactly the right pace
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • statistical completeness of 66.7% — you cannot govern what you refuse to measure, and this state measures nearly everything
  • the survival record reads bent by shocks, never broken — continuity through catastrophe is the rarest asset a nation can hold
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • 74.0% of people online — the digital public square is full, which is power and peril at once
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — influence stops at the border, because the ships cannot go any further
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • With a nominal GDP of $62 million, the country is a spectator at the auctions where the century is being sold.
  • At $57 million in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • Economic diversification of 1 industries — a brittle economy, hostage to the price of a lone commodity.
  • population 12,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • infant mortality 27 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • population growth 0.8% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • a statehood history of 48 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • constitutional stability of 48 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • just 0 distinct minerals named — geology dealt a narrow hand
  • a food base of 4 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical minerals: no major critical-mineral endowment — in the scramble for the transition's raw materials, this is a spectator seat
Feleti Teo Prime Minister PWR 588.74 / 10036.1–12.551.651.98.057.552.525.2
#193Sao Tome and Principe
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — while others spend their budgets on bandages, this one spends on foundations
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Inflation of 14.4% — prices move slowly enough that savings keep their meaning.
  • Unemployment of 9.2% — nearly everyone who wants work finds it, which is the quiet foundation of everything else.
  • Labor productivity of $5,500 per worker — each pair of hands here produces far above the global average.
  • no net brain drain — its brightest stay, build, and compound their talent at home instead of exporting it
  • urbanization 76.4% — a nation living where the economy lives: dense, networked, and built to scale
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — the state functions as a home rather than a hazard, and that is the foundation every other ranking stands on
  • data transparency at 83.3% — a state confident enough to publish its own numbers fears neither auditors nor historians
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 1 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • internet penetration at 62.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • rent capture: no resource rents to capture — booms end, but funds compound

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — when the final argument is made, this capital negotiates without the only card that ends all negotiation
  • Nominal GDP of $764 million — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $1 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • infant mortality 41 per thousand live births — babies dying at rates rich countries left behind generations ago, the damning verdict on clinics and budgets that never showed up
  • population 224,000 — a demographic footnote, too few people to matter at the scale where history is decided
  • life expectancy 67 years — the single number that indicts every other statistic on this page
  • continuous statehood of just 51 years — the institutions are still learning the country's name
  • crisis resilience: no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — when the storm comes, the budget is written by events, not by ministers
  • constitutional stability of 51 years — the rulebook is rewritten every time power changes hands
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
  • energy standing: an energy importer — the lights depend on foreign fuel — a socket wired to someone else's decisions
Carlos Vila Nova President PWR 438.42 / 10037.0–12.548.843.78.057.538.826.4
#194San Marino
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — trade flows clean, which is worth more than any single deal
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • At $70,900 per worker, output per head is the engine room of national wealth.
  • At $70,900 per person, wealth here is not a rumor — it is the furniture.
  • At 1.2%, inflation sits in the livable band: money holds its value, plans hold their shape.
  • urbanization 97.8% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • life expectancy 84 years — citizens who live long enough to compound knowledge, savings, and ambition across decades
  • infant mortality 6 per thousand live births — the body's verdict on the clinics: newborns survive here, and that verdict is merciless everywhere else
  • sovereign defaults on the record: 0 — creditors have never once been stiffed here
  • constitutional stability of 1,725 years — the rules of the game have not been rewritten in living memory
  • continuous statehood running 1,725 years unbroken — the institutional equivalent of muscle memory
  • internet penetration at 87.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — it lobbies a council it can never command
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • Nominal GDP of $2 billion — an economy too small to price anything, consulted by nobody when the future is decided.
  • At $2 billion in purchasing power terms, even cheap prices cannot hide how little there is to spend.
  • no sovereign wealth fund — the boom years left receipts, not savings.
  • population 35,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • median age 46 — outside the sweet spot: a population too young to sustain its ambitions, or too old to renew them
  • population growth 0.6% — a stagnant or shrinking headcount: fewer hands, fewer buyers, and a future that keeps receding
  • the record on crisis resilience says no shock absorbers — the next crisis writes the budget — empires rarely fall to invaders; they fall to the shock they could not absorb
  • civilizational continuity: a young state with shallow roots — a state without ancestors must rent its legitimacy from the present
  • treaty compliance: a mostly reliable treaty partner — a signature here is a photograph, not a commitment
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • only 6 products in the agricultural base — the dinner table depends on ships, weather, and other people's goodwill
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Alice Mina and Vladimiro Selva Captains Regent PWR 367.83 / 10029.9–12.568.062.58.057.545.744.0
#195Holy See (Vatican City)
Why this ranking

Strengths

  • at peace — the rarest strategic luxury: full attention for building instead of bleeding
  • no multilateral sanctions — its banks, ports, and planes move through the world economy without a legal shadow
  • a generally reliable ally — in a world of paper promises, this is the signature others trust
  • Economic diversification of 7 distinct industries — if an industry stumbles, the others carry the weight.
  • A sovereign fund of no sovereign wealth fund: savings that work while the country sleeps.
  • the economic books are closed — a strong ledger would not need to hide
  • urbanization 100.0% — the countryside emptied into the cities, where productivity, universities, and power actually concentrate
  • no net brain drain — the talented plant their flags here rather than carrying them abroad
  • social cohesion: a cohesive society — no war, no mass displacement — the state functions as a home rather than a hazard, and that is the foundation every other ranking stands on
  • sovereign-default count: 0 — the state pays what it owes, every time, and lenders price that in
  • institutional memory: bent by shocks, never broken — states that have seen the abyss govern with the gravity of survivors
  • the current constitutional order has stood 97 years — regimes that last this long were built, not improvised
  • internet penetration at 87.0% — a population this connected can learn, earn, and organize at scale
  • export structure: a diversified export base — no single market crash writes this country's budget
  • resource rents: no resource rents to capture — the whole difference between a windfall spent and a fortune kept

What drags it down

  • no meaningful power projection — an army built to stay home while the crises happen abroad
  • no seat at the Security Council table — the world's most consequential votes happen without it
  • no nuclear weapons — it faces states whose last word is a warhead, and has no last word of its own
  • the economic books are closed — a strong ledger would not need to hide
  • the economic books are closed — a strong ledger would not need to hide
  • the economic books are closed — a strong ledger would not need to hide
  • population 1,000 — a thin human base: vulnerable to shocks, dependent on others, and negotiating from a position of smallness
  • the people go uncounted — what a state does not measure, it cannot serve
  • the people go uncounted — what a state does not measure, it cannot serve
  • a statehood history of 97 years — young enough that the founding fathers are still on television
  • data transparency at 16.7% — the numbers are missing because someone prefers them that way
  • the civilizational record reads a young state with shallow roots — young states can build futures, but they cannot buy a past
  • 0 minerals in the national inventory — a thin bench where one bad price can hollow the treasury
  • a food base of 0 items — narrow fields, which means hunger policy is import policy
  • critical-mineral endowment: no major critical-mineral endowment — no sourced critical-mineral inventory is available in this release
Leo XIV Pope PWR 862.93 / 10020.2–12.549.346.08.057.541.27.5
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The one who actually governs each country — president, prime minister or chancellor — ranked by power score (PWR), each assessed on a fact-checked record. Expand any row for the reasons behind the ranking. Every eligible head of government appears here, ranked by power score.

#1Mohammed bin SalmanCrown Prince and Prime MinisterSaudi Arabia94 PWR
#2Mohamed bin ZayedPresidentUnited Arab Emirates93 PWR
#3Haitham bin TariqSultanOman90 PWR
#4Kim Jong UnSupreme LeaderNorth Korea89 PWR
#5Hassanal BolkiahSultanBrunei87 PWR
#6Min Aung HlaingPresident of MyanmarBurma85 PWR
#7Hamad bin Isa Al KhalifaKingBahrain76 PWR
#8Mishal Al-AhmadEmirKuwait75 PWR
#9Mswati IIIKingEswatini74 PWR
#10Xi JinpingPresidentChina72 PWR
#11Narendra ModiPrime MinisterIndia71 PWR
#12Mia MottleyPrime MinisterBarbados69 PWR
#13Donald J. TrumpPresidentUnited States69 PWR
#14Lawrence WongPrime MinisterSingapore68 PWR
#15Anthony AlbanesePrime MinisterAustralia67 PWR
#16Nayib BukelePresidentEl Salvador67 PWR
#17Javier MileiPresidentArgentina66 PWR
#18Claudia SheinbaumPresidentMexico66 PWR
#19Nikol PashinyanPrime MinisterArmenia64 PWR
#20Anwar IbrahimPrime MinisterMalaysia64 PWR
#21Andrew HolnessPrime MinisterJamaica62 PWR
#22Surangel Whipps Jr.PresidentPalau62 PWR
#23Shavkat MirziyoyevPresidentUzbekistan62 PWR
#24Tshering TobgayPrime MinisterBhutan61 PWR
#25Roosevelt SkerritPrime MinisterDominica61 PWR
#26Luis AbinaderPresidentDominican Republic61 PWR
#27Mohamed Irfaan AliPresidentGuyana61 PWR
#28Lee Jae MyungPresidentSouth Korea61 PWR
#29Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al ThaniPrime MinisterQatar61 PWR
#30Anura Kumara DissanayakePresidentSri Lanka60 PWR
#31Hilda C. HeinePresidentMarshall Islands60 PWR
#32James MarapePrime MinisterPapua New Guinea60 PWR
#33Mark CarneyPrime MinisterCanada59 PWR
#34Sitiveni RabukaPrime MinisterFiji59 PWR
#35Xanana GusmãoPrime MinisterTimor-Leste59 PWR
#36Tô LâmPresidentVietnam59 PWR
#37Luiz Inácio Lula da SilvaPresidentBrazil58 PWR
#38Santiago PeñaPresidentParaguay58 PWR
#39Feleti TeoPrime MinisterTuvalu58 PWR
#40Sanae TakaichiPrime MinisterJapan57 PWR
#41José Raúl MulinoPresidentPanama57 PWR
#42Volodymyr ZelenskyyPresidentUkraine57 PWR
#43Ilham AliyevPresidentAzerbaijan56 PWR
#44Benjamin NetanyahuPrime MinisterIsrael56 PWR
#45Jafar HassanPrime MinisterJordan56 PWR
#46Taneti MaamauPresidentKiribati56 PWR
#47Hakainde HichilemaPresidentZambia56 PWR
#48Rumen RadevPrime MinisterBulgaria55 PWR
#49Mette FrederiksenPrime MinisterDenmark55 PWR
#50Daniel NoboaPresidentEcuador55 PWR
#51Prabowo SubiantoPresidentIndonesia55 PWR
#52Jennifer Geerlings-SimonsPresidentSuriname55 PWR
#53Gaston BrownePrime MinisterAntigua and Barbuda54 PWR
#54Johnny BriceñoPrime MinisterBelize54 PWR
#55Wesley W. SiminaPresidentFederated States of Micronesia54 PWR
#56Bernardo ArévaloPresidentGuatemala54 PWR
#57Jonas Gahr StørePrime MinisterNorway54 PWR
#58Ahmed al-SharaaPresidentSyria54 PWR
#59Philip DavisPrime MinisterThe Bahamas53 PWR
#60Kyriakos MitsotakisPrime MinisterGreece53 PWR
#61Sadyr JaparovPresidentKyrgyzstan53 PWR
#62Kamla Persad-BissessarPrime MinisterTrinidad and Tobago53 PWR
#63Yamandú OrsiPresidentUruguay53 PWR
#64Rodrigo PazPresidentBolivia52 PWR
#65José Antonio KastPresidentChile52 PWR
#66John MahamaPresidentGhana52 PWR
#67Micheál MartinTaoiseachIreland52 PWR
#68Giorgia MeloniPrime MinisterItaly52 PWR
#69Milojko SpajićPrime MinisterMontenegro52 PWR
#70Christopher LuxonPrime MinisterNew Zealand52 PWR
#71Ferdinand Marcos Jr.PresidentPhilippines52 PWR
#72Jotham NapatPrime MinisterVanuatu52 PWR
#73Laura Fernández DelgadoPresidentCosta Rica51 PWR
#74Petteri OrpoPrime MinisterFinland51 PWR
#75Philip J. PierrePrime MinisterSaint Lucia51 PWR
#76Donald TuskPrime MinisterPoland51 PWR
#77Duma BokoPresidentBotswana50 PWR
#78Alassane OuattaraPresidentCôte d'Ivoire50 PWR
#79Abelardo de la EspriellaPresidentColombia50 PWR
#80Friedrich MerzChancellorGermany50 PWR
#81Kassym-Jomart TokayevPresidentKazakhstan50 PWR
#82Mohamed MuizzuPresidentMaldives50 PWR
#83Robert AbelaPrime MinisterMalta50 PWR
#84Navin RamgoolamPrime MinisterMauritius50 PWR
#85Rob JettenPrime MinisterNetherlands50 PWR
#86Shehbaz SharifPrime MinisterPakistan50 PWR
#87Guy ParmelinPresident of the Swiss ConfederationSwitzerland49 PWR
#88Nikos ChristodoulidesPresidentCyprus49 PWR
#89Pedro SánchezPrime MinisterSpain49 PWR
#90Hun ManetPrime MinisterCambodia49 PWR
#91Terrance DrewPrime MinisterSaint Kitts and Nevis49 PWR
#92Netumbo Nandi-NdaitwahPresidentNamibia49 PWR
#93Edi RamaPrime MinisterAlbania48 PWR
#94Tarique RahmanPrime MinisterBangladesh48 PWR
#95Dickon MitchellPrime MinisterGrenada48 PWR
#96Péter MagyarPrime MinisterHungary48 PWR
#97Nawaf SalamPrime MinisterLebanon48 PWR
#98Luís MontenegroPrime MinisterPortugal48 PWR
#99Matthew WalePrime MinisterSolomon Islands48 PWR
#100Janez JanšaPrime MinisterSlovenia48 PWR
#101Samia Suluhu HassanPresidentTanzania48 PWR
#102Bart De WeverPrime MinisterBelgium47 PWR
#103Adama BarrowPresidentThe Gambia47 PWR
#104Luc FriedenPrime MinisterLuxembourg47 PWR
#105Mohamed Ould GhazouaniPresidentMauritania47 PWR
#106David AdeangPresidentNauru47 PWR
#107Kristen MichalPrime MinisterEstonia46 PWR
#108Mamadi DoumbouyaPresidentGuinea46 PWR
#109Nasry AsfuraPresidentHonduras46 PWR
#110Andrej PlenkovićPrime MinisterCroatia46 PWR
#111Uchral Nyam-OsorPrime MinisterMongolia46 PWR
#112Bola TinubuPresidentNigeria46 PWR
#113Bassirou Diomaye FayePresidentSenegal46 PWR
#114Julius Maada BioPresidentSierra Leone46 PWR
#115Emomali RahmonPresidentTajikistan46 PWR
#116Fatafehi FakafānuaPrime MinisterTonga46 PWR
#117Laʻauli Leuatea SchmidtPrime MinisterSamoa46 PWR
#118João LourençoPresidentAngola45 PWR
#119Christian StockerChancellorAustria45 PWR
#120Abdelmadjid TebbounePresidentAlgeria45 PWR
#121Abdel Fattah el-SisiPresidentEgypt45 PWR
#122Andy BurnhamPrime MinisterUnited Kingdom45 PWR
#123Kristrún FrostadóttirPrime MinisterIceland45 PWR
#124William RutoPresidentKenya45 PWR
#125Joseph BoakaiPresidentLiberia45 PWR
#126Mindaugas SinkevičiusPrime MinisterLithuania45 PWR
#127Hristijan MickoskiPrime MinisterNorth Macedonia45 PWR
#128Balendra ShahPrime MinisterNepal45 PWR
#129Anutin CharnvirakulPrime MinisterThailand45 PWR
#130Godwin FridayPrime MinisterSaint Vincent and the Grenadines45 PWR
#131Andrej BabišPrime MinisterCzechia44 PWR
#132Brice Oligui NguemaPresidentGabon44 PWR
#133Sam MatekanePrime MinisterLesotho44 PWR
#134Vasile TofanPrime MinisterMoldova44 PWR
#135Mohammad MustafaPrime MinisterPalestine44 PWR
#136Patrick HerminiePresidentSeychelles44 PWR
#137Delcy RodríguezInterim PresidentVenezuela44 PWR
#138Cyril RamaphosaPresidentSouth Africa44 PWR
#139Xavier EspotHead of GovernmentAndorra43 PWR
#140Emmanuel MacronPresidentFrance43 PWR
#141Thongloun SisoulithPresidentLaos43 PWR
#142Brigitte HaasPrime MinisterLiechtenstein43 PWR
#143Peter MutharikaPresidentMalawi43 PWR
#144Keiko FujimoriPresidentPeru43 PWR
#145Paul KagamePresidentRwanda43 PWR
#146Carlos Vila NovaPresidentSao Tome and Principe43 PWR
#147Serdar BerdimuhamedowPresidentTurkmenistan43 PWR
#148Francisco CarvalhoPrime MinisterCabo Verde42 PWR
#149Abiy AhmedPrime MinisterEthiopia42 PWR
#150Ulf KristerssonPrime MinisterSweden42 PWR
#151Félix TshisekediPresidentDemocratic Republic of the Congo41 PWR
#152Andris KulbergsPrime MinisterLatvia41 PWR
#153Aziz AkhannouchHead of Government (outgoing)Morocco41 PWR
#154Christophe MirmandMinister of StateMonaco41 PWR
#155Recep Tayyip ErdoğanPresidentTurkey41 PWR
#156Ali al-ZaidiPrime MinisterIraq40 PWR
#157Daniel ChapoPresidentMozambique40 PWR
#158Robert FicoPrime MinisterSlovakia40 PWR
#159Mahamat Idriss DébyPresidentChad40 PWR
#160Borjana KrištoChairwoman of the Council of MinistersBosnia and Herzegovina39 PWR
#161Irakli KobakhidzePrime MinisterGeorgia39 PWR
#162Abdourahamane TianiTransitional PresidentNiger39 PWR
#163Évariste NdayishimiyePresidentBurundi38 PWR
#164Romuald WadagniPresidentBenin38 PWR
#165Aleksandar VučićPresidentSerbia38 PWR
#166Emmerson MnangagwaPresidentZimbabwe38 PWR
#167Azali AssoumaniPresidentComoros37 PWR
#168Ismaïl Omar GuellehPresidentDjibouti37 PWR
#169Ibrahim TraoréTransitional PresidentBurkina Faso36 PWR
#170Assimi GoïtaPresident of the TransitionMali36 PWR
#171Ilie BolojanPrime MinisterRomania36 PWR
#172Alice Mina and Vladimiro SelvaCaptains RegentSan Marino36 PWR
#173Faure GnassingbéPresident of the Council of MinistersTogo36 PWR
#174Yoweri MuseveniPresidentUganda36 PWR
#175Faustin-Archange TouadéraPresidentCentral African Republic35 PWR
#176Hassan Sheikh MohamudPresidentSomalia33 PWR
#177Rashad al-AlimiChairman, Presidential Leadership CouncilYemen33 PWR
#178Denis Sassou NguessoPresidentRepublic of the Congo32 PWR
#179Miguel Díaz-CanelPresidentCuba32 PWR
#180Vladimir PutinPresidentRussia32 PWR
#181Michael RandrianirinaTransitional PresidentMadagascar31 PWR
#182Kaïs SaïedPresidentTunisia31 PWR
#183Masoud PezeshkianPresidentIran30 PWR
#184Daniel OrtegaPresidentNicaragua30 PWR
#185Alix Didier Fils-AiméTransitional Prime MinisterHaiti29 PWR
#186Paul BiyaPresidentCameroon27 PWR
#187Mohammad Hasan AkhundActing Prime MinisterAfghanistan26 PWR
#188Horta Inta-aTransitional PresidentGuinea-Bissau26 PWR
#189Alexander LukashenkaPresidentBelarus24 PWR
#190Teodoro Obiang Nguema MbasogoPresidentEquatorial Guinea23 PWR
#191Salva KiirPresidentSouth Sudan22 PWR
#192Isaias AfwerkiPresidentEritrea20 PWR
#193Abdel Fattah al-BurhanChairman of the Transitional Sovereignty CouncilSudan17 PWR
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Every nation's military power — scored as a causal capability model across 24 dimensions: force mass, equipment quality, readiness, command, logistics, industrial base, nuclear deterrence (separate from conventional power), projection, and sustainment. Personnel and spending are transformed through what they can actually generate — mass without logistics is not power. Higher means harder power: the proven capacity to project force, not just parade it.

#1United States97.85 / 100—1,280,000
#2Russia81.43 / 100——
#3China79.70 / 100—2,000,000
#4United Kingdom68.96 / 100——
#5France68.35 / 100—200,000
#6Israel58.93 / 100—170,000
#7India57.38 / 100—1,500,000
#8Japan54.59 / 100——
#9South Korea53.75 / 100—500,000
#10Egypt52.51 / 100—450,000
#11Turkey50.19 / 100—495,000
#12Italy49.53 / 100—170,000
#13Thailand49.29 / 100—350,000
#14Brazil49.22 / 100—360,000
#15North Korea49.12 / 100—1,300,000
#16Denmark48.18 / 100—17,000
#17Finland47.51 / 100—31,000
#18Guatemala47.50 / 100—20,000
#19Germany47.48 / 100—185,000
#20Spain47.02 / 100—120,000
#21Colombia46.11 / 100—260,000
#22Sweden45.77 / 100—25,000
#23Costa Rica45.68 / 100——
#24New Zealand45.62 / 100—8,800
#25Greece45.15 / 100—112,000
#26Mexico45.06 / 100—260,000
#27Poland44.95 / 100—235,000
#28Benin44.84 / 100——
#29Australia44.51 / 100—60,000
#30Kazakhstan44.40 / 100—50,000
#31Eritrea44.37 / 100—150,000
#32Laos43.59 / 100—30,000
#33Panama43.59 / 100——
#34Vietnam43.45 / 100—450,000
#35Canada43.26 / 100—75,000
#36Mozambique43.26 / 100—12,000
#37Cuba43.12 / 100—50,000
#38Netherlands42.92 / 100—43,000
#39Indonesia42.59 / 100—400,000
#40Tajikistan42.53 / 100—10,000
#41Argentina42.11 / 100—75,000
#42Pakistan42.10 / 100—650,000
#43Norway42.01 / 100—27,000
#44Mongolia41.97 / 100——
#45Chad41.95 / 100——
#46Ireland41.84 / 100—7,500
#47El Salvador41.80 / 100—25,000
#48Kyrgyzstan41.56 / 100——
#49Portugal41.45 / 100—25,000
#50Iran41.04 / 100—600,000
#51Mali40.95 / 100——
#52Austria40.79 / 100—22,000
#53Belgium40.69 / 100—23,000
#54Ukraine40.45 / 100—850,000
#55The Gambia40.35 / 100—3,000
#56Belarus40.05 / 100——
#57Democratic Republic of the Congo39.81 / 100——
#58Solomon Islands39.66 / 100——
#59Niger39.48 / 100—50,000
#60Madagascar39.47 / 100——
#61Nicaragua39.29 / 100—12,000
#62Papua New Guinea39.16 / 100—4,000
#63Guinea-Bissau39.06 / 100—4,000
#64Turkmenistan38.67 / 100—35,000
#65Equatorial Guinea38.60 / 100——
#66Mauritius38.45 / 100——
#67Saudi Arabia38.45 / 100—250,000
#68Malaysia38.38 / 100—110,000
#69Bulgaria38.32 / 100—28,000
#70Haiti38.03 / 100——
#71Palestine38.03 / 100—28,000
#72Bhutan37.97 / 100——
#73South Africa37.94 / 100——
#74Switzerland37.85 / 100——
#75Cabo Verde37.83 / 100—1,000
#76Romania37.53 / 100—70,000
#77Singapore37.12 / 100—55,000
#78Chile37.04 / 100—70,000
#79Somalia36.99 / 100—20,000
#80Morocco36.88 / 100—220,000
#81Sierra Leone36.68 / 100—10,000
#82Qatar36.58 / 100—15,000
#83Vanuatu36.49 / 100——
#84Czechia36.18 / 100—28,000
#85Cameroon36.15 / 100——
#86Honduras35.97 / 100—15,000
#87Liberia35.97 / 100——
#88Malawi35.60 / 100—10,000
#89Kuwait35.53 / 100—17,000
#90Philippines35.32 / 100—145,000
#91Algeria35.26 / 100—200,000
#92Jordan35.18 / 100—100,000
#93Hungary34.77 / 100—30,000
#94Jamaica34.45 / 100—4,000
#95Samoa34.24 / 100——
#96Kiribati34.11 / 100——
#97Nigeria34.11 / 100—140,000
#98Kenya34.09 / 100—25,000
#99Trinidad and Tobago34.05 / 100——
#100Republic of the Congo33.98 / 100——
#101The Bahamas33.90 / 100—1,500
#102Comoros33.76 / 100——
#103Saint Lucia33.75 / 100——
#104Guyana33.57 / 100—3,500
#105Rwanda33.56 / 100——
#106Burkina Faso33.46 / 100——
#107Cambodia33.36 / 100——
#108Guinea33.18 / 100——
#109Tunisia33.18 / 100—35,000
#110Estonia33.12 / 100—7,500
#111Fiji33.01 / 100—4,000
#112Serbia32.90 / 100—25,000
#113Grenada32.81 / 100——
#114Togo32.68 / 100—20,000
#115Maldives32.42 / 100——
#116Saint Vincent and the Grenadines32.34 / 100——
#117Barbados32.30 / 100—600
#118Namibia32.26 / 100—12,000
#119Bangladesh32.22 / 100—170,000
#120Mauritania31.99 / 100—17,000
#121Marshall Islands31.86 / 100——
#122Sao Tome and Principe31.83 / 100—500
#123Lebanon31.59 / 100—70,000
#124United Arab Emirates31.46 / 100—65,000
#125Dominica31.41 / 100——
#126Suriname31.33 / 100——
#127Ghana31.25 / 100——
#128Burundi31.11 / 100——
#129Dominican Republic31.09 / 100——
#130Côte d'Ivoire31.06 / 100——
#131Gabon31.01 / 100—7,000
#132South Sudan30.90 / 100——
#133Antigua and Barbuda30.86 / 100——
#134Belize30.82 / 100——
#135Tanzania30.81 / 100—25,000
#136Azerbaijan30.75 / 100—100,000
#137Angola30.61 / 100—100,000
#138Libya30.56 / 100——
#139Sudan30.54 / 100——
#140Peru30.36 / 100—85,000
#141Sri Lanka30.32 / 100—210,000
#142Timor-Leste30.26 / 100——
#143Saint Kitts and Nevis30.13 / 100——
#144Djibouti30.07 / 100——
#145Ethiopia30.07 / 100——
#146Eswatini29.97 / 100—3,000
#147Central African Republic29.94 / 100——
#148Palau29.89 / 100——
#149Yemen29.67 / 100——
#150Armenia29.62 / 100——
#151Nepal29.42 / 100—95,000
#152Brunei29.00 / 100—7,000
#153Moldova29.00 / 100——
#154Botswana28.97 / 100—10,000
#155Bahrain28.85 / 100—10,000
#156Oman28.77 / 100—40,000
#157Venezuela28.75 / 100——
#158Afghanistan28.74 / 100——
#159Lesotho28.70 / 100——
#160Iceland28.69 / 100——
#161Ecuador28.68 / 100—40,000
#162Zimbabwe28.48 / 100—30,000
#163Paraguay28.11 / 100—15,000
#164Georgia28.06 / 100——
#165Syria27.97 / 100——
#166Bolivia27.86 / 100——
#167Uzbekistan27.76 / 100—50,000
#168Croatia27.56 / 100—15,000
#169Myanmar27.53 / 100—150,000
#170Latvia27.35 / 100—9,000
#171Tuvalu27.17 / 100——
#172Seychelles26.86 / 100—500
#173Tonga26.86 / 100—600
#174Lithuania26.80 / 100—20,000
#175Senegal26.76 / 100—25,000
#176Nauru26.70 / 100——
#177Zambia26.64 / 100—16,000
#178Iraq26.54 / 100—200,000
#179FM25.89 / 100——
#180Slovenia25.59 / 100—6,000
#181Uruguay25.56 / 100—23,000
#182Uganda25.29 / 100—45,000
#183Slovakia24.66 / 100—17,000
#184Malta24.37 / 100——
#185Luxembourg23.05 / 100—900
#186Albania22.44 / 100—7,500
#187Cyprus22.43 / 100——
#188Bosnia and Herzegovina22.12 / 100—10,000
#189Montenegro21.43 / 100——
#190North Macedonia20.47 / 100—6,000
#191Holy See (Vatican City)18.76 / 100——
#192Monaco18.56 / 100——
#193San Marino17.26 / 100——
#194Andorra17.18 / 100——
#195Liechtenstein16.73 / 100——
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Components — Mass: demographic and economic scale · Capability: strategic capability, where the data exists · Leverage: asymmetric advantages · Conversion: turning resources into usable power · Resilience: shock absorption · Reach: the ability to act at distance · Sovereignty: freedom of maneuver · Institutions: institutional position · Trajectory: direction of travel. Component scores 0–100; a dash means no data — the model applies no adjustment rather than a zero. Click a column header to sort. Scores are the latest published calculation under the National Power methodology of 2026-10-03; indicator years are source-reported where available, and the model treats all vintages as contemporaneous (disclosed vintage). Leader: the one who actually governs — the president, prime minister or chancellor in charge — with their power score (PWR), assessed on a fact-checked record. The Leaders tab ranks eligible heads of government by power score. The Leaders tab ranks the governing leaders by PWR; expand any row for the reasons behind the ranking.