Behind a country’s wealth and success are the policies that create possibilities, the people that drive the effort and the history that shapes the environment and perspective.
Globalization has expanded a country’s presence beyond its physical borders, and the 2018 Best Countries rankings by U.S. News & World Report seek to understand a nation’s worth beyond hard metrics.
The report and rankings are based on how global perceptions define countries in terms of a number of qualitative characteristics, impressions that have the potential to drive trade, travel and investment and directly affect national economies.
In a simpler term, these countries are best defined as 'best country to invest in'.
Eighty nations – up from 60 in the inaugural rankings – were measured in the report.
The attributes were grouped into 9 sub-rankings: adventure, citizenship, cultural influence, entrepreneurship, heritage, movers, open for business, power and quality of life.
Herewith is the full list and let's see the score of Southeast Asian nations in this area:
| Rank | Country | GDP (billion) | Population | GDP Per Capita, PPP |
| 16 | Singapore | $297 | 5.6 million | $87,832 |
| 27 | Thailand | $406.8 | 68.9 million | $16,885 |
| 34 | Malaysia | $296.4 | 31.2 million | $27,292 |
| 41 | Indonesia | $932.3 | 261.6 million | $11,717 |
| 44 | Vietnam | $202.6 | 92.7 million | $6,423 |
| 49 | Philippines | $304.9 | 103.3 million | $7,739 |
| 63 | Myanmar | $67.4 | 52.9 million | $5,804 |
The 80 countries in the 2018 Best Countries rankings had to meet four benchmarks within the last two years for which data are available to be assessed in the survey and included in the rankings:
# Top 100 countries in terms of gross domestic product in 2015 or 2014, based on World Bank Data
# Top 150 countries in the UN’s Human Development Index, based on the 2015 or 2014 report
# Top 100 countries in terms of foreign direct investment inflows in 2014 or 2013, based on United Nations data
# Top 100 countries in terms of international tourism receipts in 2014 or international tourism arrivals in 2013, based on World Bank data
Source : https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/overall-full-list
