- France topped the list of most positive countries for the first time ever.
- The USA jumped back into the list in 2019 after missing out last year.
- Canada moved down to the sixth position from the top of the list within a year.
- Ethiopia, South Korea, Denmark, Costa Rica and Argentina are the regional winners.
- Global citizens continued to have positive projection for the world, for the second consecutive year.
- Australia, China and Germany are the only three countries that made it to all the previous lists of most positive countries.
France
was crowned as the World’s Most Positive Country for the first time ever in 2019,
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 2019 on
the D+ website.
The
top 10 World’s Most Positive Countries for 2019 along with respective ranking
points are as follows:
Figure:
Top 10 World’s Most Positive Countries for 2019
Apart
from this overall list of 10 most positive countries, 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.
France finally made it to the top of the list of
world’s most positive countries in 2019. France has been intriguing with their
positive accolades and accomplishments in the field of science, sports,
adventure, economic development, arts, environment, among many others. According
to the D+ global poll participants, France was seen as the leading voice in the
European Union (EU) in 2019. Apart from that, French doctors have developed a
brain-controlled external skeleton for support that helped a paralyzed man
learn to walk again. French restaurant Mirazur was crowned as the world's best
restaurant by British trade magazine Restaurant. French inventor Franky Zapata
became the first person to successfully cross the English Channel on a
jet-powered hoverboard. The most powerful floating solar power plant in Europe
was inaugurated at Piolenc in southern France, named the O’MEGA1 plant is a 17
megawatt (MW) solar plant, marking another exemplary milestone in the
development of solar energy. Despite the current civil unrest in France, the
economy maintained positive vibe compared to its neighboring countries.
Japan continued its impressive run from last year and
climbed up to the second position. It is the highest ever position for Japan in
the list of the most positive countries. Japanese architect Arata Isozaki won
the 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize - a prestigious award often called the
Nobel Prize of the profession. A prototype of Japan's next-generation
Shinkansen bullet train codenamed ALFA-X, set to be the fastest train on wheels
when it enters service, reached speeds of 320km per hour on a test run. Researchers
from Keio University in Japan have created a robotic tail, dubbed Arque, for
humans that's designed to assist elderly maintain balance. Japanese scientist
Akira Yoshino shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 for the development of
lithium-ion batteries.
Australia moved down one spot to the third position in
the list of most positive countries compared to last year. One of the most
notable points about Australia was it passed the year without any major economical
or social concerns at home and abroad, in a year when national general election
took place and international relationships seem to have grown with all the
major allies. It is quite exemplary, when compared with all the other major economic
powers from around the world, demonstrating stability and strength in its
systems. On the other hand, Australian researchers have discovered immune cells
that can fight all known flu viruses – creating the potential for the
development of a world-first universal, one-shot flu vaccine. Australian
immunologist Professor Jacques Miller won the prestigious Lasker Basic Medical
Research Award 2019 for his contributions in the discovery of the roles of key
immune cells – an award that is widely recognized as one of the highest
international honors in medical research. Finally, Ashleigh Barty ended
Australia's 46-year wait for a French Open women’s singles tennis title in 2019.
The United
States of America (USA) jumped back into the fourth position in the list after
missing out last year. This amazing run was possible with the help of some
fascinating positive research stories that came out of the USA. In a scientific
first, American neuroengineers at Columbia University have created a system
that translates thoughts or brain signals into intelligible, recognizable
speech. A research group led by scientists from the Washington State University
has found a way to turn daily plastic waste products into jet fuel. A
biomedical engineering team at the University of Utah have created a prosthetic
arm that can move and feel. A trio of Americans, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo
and Michael Kremer, won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize for their work in the
fight against poverty.
China retained its fifth position in the list of most
positive countries from last year in 2019. China's Chang'e-4 probe touched down
on the far side of the moon, becoming the first spacecraft soft-landing on the
moon's uncharted side never visible from Earth. Chinese scientists unveiled a
battery-free pacemaker that generates its energy from the heartbeats of pigs in
what could pave the way for an "implant for life" in humans suffering
from heart defects. A new species of dinosaur named Ambopteryx longibrachium
with bat-like wings has been discovered in China, shedding light on how
dinosaurs evolved into birds. China's first self-developed 4-seater electric
aircraft, the RX4E, made a successful maiden flight in the northeastern Chinese
city of Shenyang.
Canada moved down to the sixth position from the top
of the list within a year, making it the biggest mover of all time from the top
position in a year time. A prolonged, highly polarized and bitterly contested
national general election in 2019 had taken its toll. In the midst of all
these, Canadian researchers have invented a stable, affordable way to store
fragile vaccines for weeks at a time at temperatures up to 40C, opening the way
for life-saving anti-viral vaccines to reach remote and impoverished regions of
the world. Canada's parliament approved a bill banning the capture and breeding
of cetaceans such as whales and dolphins. Canadian researchers have discovered
what they believe is a novel drug, SR9009, target controlling the body’s repair
responses after a heart attack. Nineteen-year-old Bianca Andreescu became the
first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles tennis title with an impressive win
at the US Open against 23-time major champion Serena Williams.
England is in the seventh position despite all the concerns
surrounding Brexit. Researchers in Oxford have carried out the world’s first
gene therapy operation to tackle the root cause of age-related macular
degeneration (AMD), the UK's most common cause of sight loss. English
researchers have broken down DNA of world's largest mammals to discover how
whales defy the cancer odds. English actress Emily Beecham won the Best Actress
Prize at the Cannes film festival for her performance in Little Joe. England
won their first ever ODI Cricket World Cup beating New Zealand in the final at
Lord's. English scientists reversed ageing process in rat brain stem cells.
New
Zealand moved up two spots from
last year in the list of most positive countries and is in eighth position. New
Zealand earned lots of praises on our global poll due to its response to the
Christchurch mosque shooting. New Zealand ranked first in the Doing Business
Index published by the World Bank Group indicating how easy it is to start and
do business in the country. New Zealand officially banned single-use plastic
shopping bags. New Zealand won the 2019 Netball World Cup beating Australia in
the final in Liverpool.
Singapore made it to the ninth position in the list of
most positive countries, slipping down two spots from last year. Singaporean
researchers have created water-resistant electronic skin with self-healing
abilities, that can be used in everything from water-resistant touchscreens to
aquatic soft robots. A team of researchers from National University of
Singapore (NUS) has developed a novel medical device, named MRegen, capable of
harnessing a magnetic field to make muscle rehabilitation quicker and more
comfortable. The World Economic Forum rated Singapore as the world's most
economically competitive country.
Germany held onto the last spot in the list of positive
countries. Despite being present in each and every previous list of most
positive countries, it is Germany’s lowest position in the list. Recent economic
and political uncertainties did not help Germany’s race. However, Germany
ranked as the second-best performing country, after the USA, with nine
universities in the Reuters’ ranking of the World’s Most Innovative
Universities, a list that identifies and ranks the educational institutions
doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and power new
markets and industries. Arkona offshore wind farm with a capacity of 385 MW, a
joint venture between Germany's Eon and Norway's Equinor, in the Baltic Sea was
officially opened. The Spektr-RG telescope, a joint venture between Germany and
Russia, that will map X-rays across the entire sky in unprecedented detail was
successfully launched into orbit atop a Proton rocket.
D+
Most Positive Regional Countries 2019
Africa:
Ethiopia
Ethiopia for the second consecutive year was named as the most
positive regional country of Africa. The Nobel Peace Prize 2019 was awarded to
Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed Ali for his efforts to achieve peace and
international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to
resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea. Ethiopians planted more
than 350 million trees in a single day as part of a campaign to fight
deforestation and climate change, which officials believe is a world record. Ethiopian
Airlines won the 2019 Best Cargo Airline-Africa Award at the Air Cargo News
Awards held in London, UK.
Asia:
South Korea
South Korea retained its regional title of most positive country in
Asia in 2019. South Korea continued to pursue for a conclusive diplomatic
solution with North Korea. Besides, South Korea launched the world's first nationwide
5G mobile networks, which allows users to download entire movies almost
instantaneously. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho won the Cannes film
festival's most prestigious award The Palme d'Or for his film Parasite.
Europe:
Denmark
Denmark lost its place on the list of top 10 most positive
countries from last year but secured the regional title from Europe. Denmark
was ranked the least corrupt nation in the world according to the Transparency
International’s corruption perception index (CPI). Denmark officially opened
Scandinavia’s largest offshore wind farm Horns Rev 3, located 25-40 kilometers
off Denmark’s west coast in the North Sea which is equipped with 49 wind
turbines. Denmark won its first World Handball Championship title, beating Scandinavian
rival Norway.
North
America: Costa Rica
Costa
Rica, for the first time ever,
made it to the list of most positive regional countries. Costa Rica was
instrumental with their effective and creative environmental policies. Notably,
Costa Rica has drafted a detailed plan to decarbonize its economy by 2050, in
line with the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals. As a result, Costa
Rica won the 2019 Champions of the Earth Policy Leadership award, the UN’s
highest environmental honor, for its role in the protection of nature and its
commitment to ambitious policies to combat climate change.
South
America: Argentina
Argentina is yet another newcomer to the list of most positive
regional countries. For the first time ever, Argentina clinched the title from
South America. Argentina's iconic bookstore Ateneo Grand Splendid was named as the
World's Most Beautiful Bookstore by travel magazine National Geographic. Argentine
football legend Lionel Messi claimed his sixth FIFA Footballer of The Year
Award. A team of Argentinian scientists has discovered oldest parasite DNA,
dated back to between 16,570 and 17,000 years ago, in prehistoric puma poo.
This year 4286 global
citizens participated in our global poll with 47.5% men and 52.5% women. This
is the fourth 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 25 to 50 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 2019, it is observed that It was Awarding for the World to Win through New Discoveries
that were made through International Research Collaborations. That was the main theme observed among all the positive news, as
Won, World, Award and International were the most used words among all the
positive stories from 2019. We also looked at the associated words to these most
used words. Among many observations, the association analysis also revealed
that the world won when the courage of women is acknowledged on international
stage.
Figure:
Analysis of all the positive news from 2019
The most popular topics
of positive accomplishments among both men and women on our global poll, in
sequence, were Environment, World Peace, Economy, Science & Innovation,
Education, International Relations and Sports. More women voted for
Environment, World Peace and Education. On the other hand, more men voted for
Science & Innovation, International Relations and Sports. Amazingly for
Economy both men and women displayed similar level of interest. Further
analysis of the comments made on the global poll suggests, the participants reacted
to recent global environmental initiatives and any initiatives that were
perceived as the antidote to war or violence.
Figure:
Popular topics of positive accomplishments among men and women
For the second
consecutive year it was observed that the percentage of people hopeful for
positive future of the world, primarily the immediate future, climbed in the
upward direction. Interestingly in relation to this trend, the analysis of
comments made on the D+ global poll suggest, global civilians appear to think
that all the recent major civil unrests, whether in France, Venezuela or Hong
Kong, are dying down a bit for good.
Figure:
Percentage of people hopeful for positive future
In the ninth year of our
award series, we also looked at the performance consistencies of all the
winners from the past 9 years. In total 19 countries made it to the list of top
10 positive counties since 2011. Australia, China and Germany are the only three
countries that were on the list for all the 9 times. In order to better
understand the performance of the countries from all the past 9 years, we
looked at the winning countries based on a weighted average metric.
In order to calculate
the weighted average, we took into account the varying positions of the winners
in all the past 9 list of positive countries. In calculating the weighted
average, positions of a country in the lists is used to add a weight between 1
to 10. If a country ranked 1st in a given year, the weighted unit for that
country in that given year was 10. On the other side of the scale, if a country
ranked 10th in a given year, the weighted unit for that country in that given
year was 1. If the country was not in the list for a given year, it scored 0.
Once all the weight values are calculated, we took the average of all the
weighted values for a given country. The following graph shows the position of
the countries based on the calculated weighted average values. It demonstrates
which countries were consistent in the past 9 years while securing a spot in
the list of most positive countries.
Figure:
Performance consistency measurement based on weighted average
The weighted average
graph shows, even though Germany was present in each of the list of most
positive countries for the past 9 years, it is in the 7th position. It means
Germany was ranking in the second half of the list in all these years. On the
other hand, Australia and China were ranking at the top half of the list,
demonstrating higher consistency in their positive achievements.
There were so many other
positive stories that took place beyond the above winners’ list. Women in Saudi Arabia are allowed to hold
passports and travel abroad without the consent of a male guardian, according
to a royal decree announced. Finland
was crowned as the happiest place to live for the second year in a row
according to the UN's seventh annual World Happiness Report. Thailand rolled out plain cigarette
packaging, the first country in Asia to introduce what activists say is an
effective way to reduce the appeal of smoking. The Nobel Prize in Literature
2019 was awarded to Peter Handke of Austria
for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the
periphery and the specificity of human experience.
“Despite the perceived
dominance of negative forces all around us, it is inspiring to see, so many around
the world stood up strong and vowed to fight with their knowledge, kindness and
vision to create a positive world. D+ world’s most positive countries
initiative is all about recognizing and celebrating those individuals who
served their countries best that they could from their respective positions. If
you look at the points table, you will have an idea how fierce the competition
was, well done to all.” says Dr. Arif Jubaer, Founder
of D+.
D+ will present the above information and facts in detail at a presentation
ceremony, end of November 2019 in Melbourne, Australia.
For more information on the World’s Most Positive Countries 2019
visit http://www.dailypositive.org/Most_Positive_Countries
Contact Information:
Contact Person: Dr. Arif Jubaer, Founder,
Daily Positive (D+)
Mobile: +61-411215302
