TORONTO: Canadians celebrated Canada Day last weekend, marking the country's 150th anniversary, and they had another reason to be pleased after a new report named Canada as the most reputable country in the world.
That is according to the Reputation Institute, whose 2017 Country RepTrak report measured the reputations of 55 of the world's largest economies across three main areas – effective government, advanced economy and appealing environment.
Canada secured 82.8 RepTrak points – the same as Switzerland, although there was a centesimal difference – while Sweden took third place with a score of 81.9.
Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland rounded out the other countries in the top ten.
Just as brands place great importance on their corporate standing, the Reputation Institute contended that global perceptions of a nation can have a material effect on its international business prospects.
"A country's reputation has a direct impact on tourism, its exports and foreign investment," said Fernando Prado, Managing Partner at Reputation Institute.
"The striking thing about Canada is that the nation's reputation is equally strong both inside and outside its borders – which should be a source of pride on its 150th birthday," he added.
"It is heartening to see Canada recognised with such distinction on the global stage, particularly in light of our country's ambitious international trade agenda," said Perrin Beatty, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
"There is even greater opportunity ahead if we can harness the power of this strong sentiment towards our values of openness, diversity and inclusion, to give ourselves the tools to be even more competitive internationally."
There was also good news for some other countries, such as Greece, whose reputation saw the biggest improvement in 2017 (+14.3%), followed by the United Arab Emirates (+13.6%) and Egypt (+10.7%).
However, Donald Trump's presidency seems to be having serious consequences for America's global reputation with the US dropping in the rankings from 28th in 2016 to 38th in 2017.
And Brexit – the UK's decision to leave the European Union – is taking its toll on the country's reputation, which fell five places in the ranking to 18th.
This finding prompted the report authors to warn of "significant drops in people's propensity to invest, work and buy from the UK", although they noted that the UK's self-image has noticeably improved by 7.5%.
That is according to the Reputation Institute, whose 2017 Country RepTrak report measured the reputations of 55 of the world's largest economies across three main areas – effective government, advanced economy and appealing environment.
Canada secured 82.8 RepTrak points – the same as Switzerland, although there was a centesimal difference – while Sweden took third place with a score of 81.9.
Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland rounded out the other countries in the top ten.
Just as brands place great importance on their corporate standing, the Reputation Institute contended that global perceptions of a nation can have a material effect on its international business prospects.
"A country's reputation has a direct impact on tourism, its exports and foreign investment," said Fernando Prado, Managing Partner at Reputation Institute.
"The striking thing about Canada is that the nation's reputation is equally strong both inside and outside its borders – which should be a source of pride on its 150th birthday," he added.
"It is heartening to see Canada recognised with such distinction on the global stage, particularly in light of our country's ambitious international trade agenda," said Perrin Beatty, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
"There is even greater opportunity ahead if we can harness the power of this strong sentiment towards our values of openness, diversity and inclusion, to give ourselves the tools to be even more competitive internationally."
There was also good news for some other countries, such as Greece, whose reputation saw the biggest improvement in 2017 (+14.3%), followed by the United Arab Emirates (+13.6%) and Egypt (+10.7%).
However, Donald Trump's presidency seems to be having serious consequences for America's global reputation with the US dropping in the rankings from 28th in 2016 to 38th in 2017.
And Brexit – the UK's decision to leave the European Union – is taking its toll on the country's reputation, which fell five places in the ranking to 18th.
This finding prompted the report authors to warn of "significant drops in people's propensity to invest, work and buy from the UK", although they noted that the UK's self-image has noticeably improved by 7.5%.
Data sourced from Reputation Institute; additional content by WARC staff
