The world's best country? The results are in

The world's best country? According to an annual ranking by the media company US News, it's Switzerland. Given its high GDP per capita (11th best in the world, according to the IMF, at $60,787) and life expectancy (2nd overall, at 83.4 years), history of pacifism, and fantastic Alpine scenery, that's hardly surprising. 

At a glance | Why is Switzerland so great?

Less expected is the country taking third spot: the UK. US News reckons Britain (which has the 28th best GDP per capita; 20th best life expectancy; a history of warfare; no Alpine scenery) is better than Germany, Japan, Sweden, Australia and Norway. What's working in its favour? The rankings take into account nine categories: Adventure, Citizenship, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship, Heritage, Movers, Open for Business, Power and Quality of Life, but certain factors are more important. Citizenship ("cares about human rights, cares about the environment, gender equality, progressive, religious freedom, respects property rights, trustworthy, well-distributed political power") contributes to 16.95 per cent of the overall ranking, for example, while for Heritage ("culturally accessible, has a rich history, has great food, many cultural attractions") it's just 3.17 per cent. 

A total of 80 countries were considered; the top 50 is as follows:

1. Switzerland

2. Canada

3. United Kingdom

4. Germany

5. Japan

6. Sweden

7. United States

8. Australia

9. France 

10. Norway

11. Netherlands

12. Denmark

13. Finland

14. New Zealand

15. Singapore

16. Italy 

17. Luxembourg

18. Austria

19. Spain

20. China

21. Ireland

22. United Arab Emirates

23. South Korea

24. Portugal

25. India

26. Thailand

27. Russia

28. Brazil

29. Greece

30. Israel

31. Poland

32. Saudi Arabia

33. Mexico

34. Qatar

35. Malaysia

36. Turkey

37. Czech Republic

38. South Africa

39. Indonesia

40. Vietnam

41. Panama

42. Argentina

43. Philippines

44. Peru

45. Egypt

46. Hungary 

47. Costa Rica

48. Morocco

49. Croatia

50. Sri Lanka

The list is at odds with last year's Telegraph Travel Awards survey of more than 70,000 readers, who named New Zealand, for the fourth consecutive year, their favourite country. The Maldives came second, followed by South Africa, Japan and Burma. 

Best countries

Our ranking, of course, was based on the experience for the traveller, rather than quality of life for citizens. 

Each year a handful of organisations - including PwC, Mercer and The Economist - also rate the world's cities, according to "liveability". They placed London, Melbourne and Vienna, respectively, at number one. Your favourite city? That would be Cape Town. 

Which really is the worlds best city? 22 reasons why Cape Town is the world’s best city