The idea of the Good Country Index is simple: to measure what each country on earth contributes to the common good of humanity, and what it takes away, relative to its size.
The Good Country Index doesn’t make moral judgments: it simply reports on each country’s external impacts, positive and negative, outside its own borders, using the most reliable data available.
The Good Country Index is one of many projects Simon Anholt has devised to start a global debate about what countries are for. Should they exist only to serve their own interests, or do they have a wider responsibility to humanity and the planet?
The Good Country Index doesn’t measure what countries do at home. That’s important too, of course, but there are many surveys that do this already. Uniquely, it only looks at each country’s external impact on the world we all share.
Today as never before, we desperately need a world made of good countries. We will only get them if we strive for them: with our leaders, our companies, our societies, and of course ourselves.