How We Ranked the World

Forget the world cup, the Olympics, even the miss universe pageant. These are the globe’s true national champions.

NEWSWEEK's list of the world's best countries.

Infographic of the World's Best Countries

Warren Buffett likes to say that anything good that’s ever happened to him can be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country—America—at the right time. And it’s true: while remarkable individuals can be found in any nation on earth, certain countries give their citizens much greater opportunity to succeed than others at certain points in time. It’s an issue that is particularly pressing today. As wealth and power shift from West to East, and a new post-crisis world order continues to take shape, it’s no longer clear that being born and raised in Omaha offers quite the edge that it once might have./.../