Australia Reclaimed the World’s Most Positive Country Title in Half a Decade

• Australia returned to the top spot for the first time since 2011.
• There are four changes in the overall list of positive countries in 2017 compared to last year.  Denmark and the Netherlands made it to the list for the first time ever. 
• France and England are back to the list of positive countries since 2014 and 2015 respectively.  Nigeria, Bangladesh, Norway, Cuba and Colombia are the regional winners.
• Analysis of all the positive news from 2017 suggests that the newsmakers worked with passion to create a positive impact in the world.
• Global citizens continued to be less hopeful for the immediate positive future of the world.

Australia crowned the World’s Most Positive Country for 2017, for the second time ever in half a decade, according to the annual global index published by Daily Positive (D+), a unique online media organization from Australia for positive news. 

The annual list of top ten most positive countries is compiled based on a positivity index comprised of a global expert panel rating, a D+ journalists rating, a global web poll and the number of positive news entries in 2017 on the D+ website.

The top 10 World’s Most Positive Countries for 2017 along with respective ranking points are as follows:

Country Name	Total Points
Australia	501
Canada	489
Switzerland	480
China	472
France	461
Germany	454
Denmark	442
England	434
Netherlands	428
United States of America	418

Apart from this overall list of 10 most positive countries, for the third time, D+ also published a list of regional positive countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. The regional winners were selected based on the same criteria used to select the overall winners but from a specific region outside of the top ten in the list.

Australia topped the list of most positive countries in 2017 and it took them half-a-decade to reclaim the top spot. Gradual development and patient build up over the past few years helped Australia return to the top. Australian medical research continued to explore new ideas with worldwide impact. Other research areas have also been impressive, for example, Australian archaeologists have confirmed that Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 65,000 years – much longer than the 47,000 years thought previously. First Australian-built satellite CubeSat was launched in 15 years. Women’s sports was flying high, including Australian women’s football team winning the inaugural Tournament of Nations defeating Brazil. Our global survey suggests Australia was seen as a positive role model especially against the changing political situation in North America.

Canada jumped into the second spot in 2017 from last year’s fifth position. Canadian universities were impressive with their researches. Canadian researchers at the University of Waterloo have captured the first composite image of a dark matter bridge that connects galaxies together. Canadian scientists from the Royal Ontario Museum have identified and named a new species of armoured dinosaur, Zuul crurivastator. Like Australia, Canada has also emerged as new positive voice against global political instability. In line with that positive vibe, Canadian school teacher Maggie MacDonnell won the annual Global Teacher Prize for encouraging hope and acts of kindness in a remote Arctic village called Salluit in Quebec.

After two years at the top of the list of most positive countries, Switzerland moved down to third in the ranking in 2017. “While maintaining stability, prosperity and livability internally, and hosting a range of international organizations, Switzerland continued to be exemplary”, says one of our expert panel members. Swiss tennis master Roger Federer’s incredible reemergence with Australian Open and Wimbledon Grand Slams was one of the most inspirational sporting stories of 2017. The Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge, the world's longest suspension footbridge - measuring over 1600 feet in length and rising as high as 279 feet, was opened in the country as part of continuous development. Swiss scientists have succeeded in deciphering the entire visual network in the brain of a fly that is expected to support brain research. Finally, Switzerland retained its rank as the world’s most competitive economy for the ninth consecutive year.

Like Switzerland, China also shifted down two positions in the list of positive countries in 2017. Despite the shift, China through the Belt and Road initiative, has been stimulating a range of infrastructure development projects throughout the world and strongly emerged as leader in world affairs. China not only changed the stigma of world’s worst polluter but also established itself as the renewable energy champion. China topped the world in renewable energy production, connected the world’s largest floating solar PV power plant to the grid and topped the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index in 2017. Among other positive initiatives, Chinese researchers teleported the first ever object, a photon, from the earth to a satellite orbiting more than 500 kilometers above.

France made it back to the list of most positive countries after two years and secured the fifth spot in 2017. France was highly praised in our global poll for its resilient and courageous stand amid all the recent terrorist attacks on French soil and to let that attitude to shine by electing a fresh government. Apart from that, France banned the breeding of killer whales and dolphins in captivity, French model Iris Mittenaere was crowned as the 65th Miss Universe and because of the revolutionary research work by French scientists a man in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) for the past 15 years has shown signs of consciousness after pioneering nerve stimulation treatment.

Germany moved up two positions in the list in 2017 compared to last year.  German economy remained solid and as a result, the unemployment rate has been downhill in 2017.  German scientists continued to innovate and impress. The world's biggest solar simulator Synlight was switched on in Germany, dubbed as "the world's largest artificial sun", intended to develop production processes for solar fuels, including hydrogen. German scientists have recently, for the first time, extracted full nuclear genome data from ancient Egyptian mummies.

Denmark made it to the list of most positive countries for the first time ever and reached at the seventh position. In 2017, Denmark ranked as the least corrupt nation in the world. Danish press has enjoyed one of the greatest freedoms in the world. Researchers from Denmark for the very first time revealed that antibiotic resistance genes originate from the same place as the antibiotic compounds, i.e. from a group of soil bacteria called Actinobacteria. Lastly, Viktor Axelsen claimed Denmark's first men's singles gold in 20 years at the Badminton World Championships.

After missing out last year, England made it back to the list of positive countries in 2017. England is at the eighth position in the list experienced greater success in global university rankings.  That translated into many distinguished awards and researches e.g. English researchers won the prestigious Brain Prize 2017 for explaining how learning is associated with the reward system of the brain. English scientists have discovered a new shrimp species Synalpheus pinkfloydi off the coast of Panama. In sports, English cyclist Chris Froome won his fourth Tour de France title representing Team Sky.

The Netherlands is another newcomer to the list of positive countries for 2017 and is at the ninth position. In our global poll the Netherlands was hailed for good governance, innovation and quality of life. All Dutch trains are now 100 percent powered by electricity generated by wind energy, according to the national railway company NS, calling it a world first. More on the same note of environmental innovation, they officially opened the Gemini Windpark, a 600 megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands. Dutch team claimed their seventh title in the Challenger class at the 2017 World Solar Challenge, a biennial solar-powered car race. Finally, the Netherlands women claimed maiden European soccer title by beating Denmark 4-2 in the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 championship.

The United States of America (USA) slipped down to the last position in the list of top 10 most positive countries in 2017.  Almost predictably the USA continued to dazzle the world with its innovations. American space transport services company SpaceX launched its first recycled cargo ship to the International Space Station, yet another milestone in its bid to drive down flight costs. American scientists have developed an artificial womb that can sustain premature lambs, and such technology could soon be useful to save prematurely born human babies. American scholars won the Nobel prizes in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economics.

D+ Most Positive Regional Countries 2017

Africa: Nigeria

Nigeria is back as the regional winner of Africa after missing out last year. Nigerians have excelled with glittering awards, such as, the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, World Food Prize and BBC World News Komla Dumor Award. The Nigerian robotics team won a gold medal at the FIRST Global robotics competition in Washington DC. Nigeria did not ever give up on the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls and continued to make progress and rescued significant number of the girls in 2017.

Asia: Bangladesh

There were simply no other choice but Bangladesh for this year’s Asian regional winner. It is mainly because, along with many positive achievements, in 2017 Bangladesh dealt with the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis with open arms and saved the world from a huge catastrophe. Huge credit goes to the current Bangladeshi government and Bangladeshis from across the country who raced to save Rohingya refugees fleeing the brutal ethnic cleansing operation of Burmese military. Bangladesh became exemplary for the regional powers and many developed nations with its humane response to deal with well over half-a-million refugees that arrived in the country in few weeks. Apart from that, Bangladesh inaugurated its first solar-powered Food Warehouse with a capacity of 25,000 tonnes of grain. Bangladesh launched its first ever nano-satellite Brac Onnesha. Bangladeshi surgeons successfully separated two 9-month-old sisters born pygopagus in a complex operation.

Europe: Norway

Norway is the regional winner from Europe. Norway topped the World Democracy Index indicating that it has a near-perfect fully functional democracy. That helped Norway to achieve best press freedom in the world. As part of continuous economic development, Norwegian solar panel maker Saga Energy recently signed a deal worth 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) with Iran's state-owned company Amin Energy Developers to build solar power plants in Iran.

North America: Cuba

Cuba retained its regional title for the third consecutive year. After job well done by the Cuban medical professionals in West Africa to fight Ebola since 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized their efforts in 2017. Cuba continued its positive attempt to integrate and engage further with the international communities. As a result, first ever cooperation agreement between the European Union and Cuba was approved in order to expand bilateral trade, promote dialogue and provide joint action on the world scene.

South America: Colombia

Colombia became the regional winner from South America for the second consecutive year. Colombia continued to build on the peace process that started for last few years in order to neutralize the local armed groups. Also, Colombian singer Shakira received the 2017 Crystal Award for her efforts to help displaced and disadvantaged children in Colombia. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was named as one of the most influential people by Time Magazine for his determination to establish peace. Natalia Ponce de Leon of Colombia, a human right activist and acid attack victim, was honored with the United States Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award 2017.

This year 3928 global citizens participated in our global poll with 49% men and 51% women. This is the second consecutive year we had more women participants than men. The global poll was successful in attracting approximately uniform amount of votes from all the regions of the world. The age distribution of the participants suggests, people aged between 30 to 60 were the most vocal in our poll.

Figure: Global poll participants in graphs

Based on our text analysis of all the positive news published on D+ in 2017, it is observed that “World” is the most prominent word appeared repeatedly in the news. Further analysis suggests it is because all the newsmakers worked in their respective fields to have a positive impact in the world. Furthermore, scientists and researchers have been spreading their amazing discoveries through international journals. Women empowerment and development have been at the forefront of key initiatives around the world. Winning major awards and securing top positions in world rankings have been the trend in 2017.

Figure: “WORLD” is the most prominent word among all the positive news from 2017

The most popular topics of positive accomplishments among both men and women on our global poll, in sequence, were World Peace, Economy, Environment, Science and Innovation, Education, International Relations and Sports, among others. While women were more concern about Environment, Science and Education, men were interested in topics, such as, Economy and Sports. However, activities around World Peace obtained the most combined attention from both men and women.

Figure: Popular topics of positive accomplishments among men and women

D+ continued to observe the trend of the percentage of people hopeful for positive future, primarily the immediate future, based on the comments made during its global polls since 2011. It is observed that since 2013 people’s positive outlook continued to decline. Volatile geopolitical situations, terrorism, natural disasters and violence resulting in mass refugees were identified as the main causes for such decline in outlook in 2017.

Other nations outside of the list of most positive countries also made 2017 a memorable one. Iceland topped the list of the world’s most peaceful country. Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon abolished a law that allowed rapists to avoid prosecution by marrying their victims. Saudi Arabia's King Salman issued a decree allowing women to drive for the first time in the Kingdom. India created history by successfully launching 104 satellites on a single mission, overtaking the previous record of 37 satellites launched by Russia in 2014. Portugal won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time since it first entered the contest in 1964.

“On the occasion of D+ world’s most positive countries 2017, it was great to see people from all around the world coming together and working for a positive world despite all the negativities surround them. For the positive newsmakers, 2017 was not about their individual dreams, rather it was about the dreams for a positive world.” says Dr. Arif Jubaer, Founder of D+.

D+ will present the above information and facts in detail at a presentation ceremony on Saturday, 25 November 2017, 2.00PM in Melbourne, Australia.

For more information on the World’s Most Positive Countries 2017 visit http://www.dailypositive.org/Most_Positive_Countries