In a survey of 21,000 people from around the world conducted by the Wharton School, Switzerland has emerged as “The Best Country.” This is the second year of the survey, and the first time Switzerland was included. Last year’s winner, Germany, was pushed to fourth place, with Canada and the UK taking slots 2 and 3, and Japan taking 5th. The U.S. came in seventh of the 65 countries polled. The Local writes:

“Switzerland debuts as the world’s ‘top’ country, in part because of its progressive social systems, protection of human rights and business-friendly environment,” said the ranking authors.

Within the categories, Switzerland ranked third for Citizenship after Norway and Sweden, achieving a score of nine out of ten or above for ‘respects property rights’, ‘trustworthy’, ‘cares about the environment’, religious freedom’ and ‘cares about human rights’.

It came sixth in the Quality of Life category, achieving a perfect ten for ‘safe’ and ‘economically stable’.

It was also perceived as the best country to headquarter a corporation.

The high regard for Switzerland around the world probably holds the key to why wealthy foreigners, especially Russian, but also Turks, Americans and others are clamoring to essentially buy residency in the tiny Alpine nation. SwissInfo writes:

According to a report published by the Aargauer Zeitung on Friday, over the past eight years 523 foreigners who were considered ‘important public interests’ took advantage of a legal amendment and obtained Swiss residency. The breakdown by nationality is below:

For more on Switzerland, read my post Epic Multi Billion Dollar World Gold Trade Found in Switzerland.