We’re Number One?

By Elliott Davis Jr. April 13, 2021

How the U.S. sees itself is far different from how the rest of the world sees it. Only 52.5% of those surveyed agreed that the country is a “good role model in a functioning democracy.” More than 66% of Americans, on the other hand, agreed with that statement. As part of the rankings report, U.S. News investigated whether the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 affected America’s image in the eyes of the rest of the world, and why the nation – which ranked near the bottom for the racial equality metric – can’t overcome its original sin of slavery and other injustices.

Here are a few rankings of our country compared to other countries:

Rank	Category/Source
1	People Incarcerated / Sentencing Project
2	Total Gun Deaths / World Population Review
3	Population / Worldometer
4	Land area / Worldometer
6	Top 10 Countries / US News
10	Global Competitiveness / Institute for Management Development
11	Maternal mortality / The Commonwealth Fund
15	Economic stability / US News & World Reports
15	Quality of Life / US News
15	Public Health System / US News
19	Happiness/World Happiness Report
24	Environmental Stewardship / Yale-Columbia Environmental Performance Index
25	Most Democratic Countries / Economist Intelligence Unit
27	Global Internet Connectivity / Yale-Columbia Environmental Performance Index
58	COVID safety / Forbes
128	Safest countries / Global Peace Index

We CAN do better.