Spain’s reputation in the world

Spain’s reputation in the world

The Elcano Royal Institute has published a 2021 edition of its study “Spain’s Reputation in the World”, which aims to analyze how the country is viewed within its borders and beyond. The study, conducted between January and March 2021 with surveys of citizens of 24 countries, reflects a general deterioration in the reputation of countries due to the prevailing pessimism about the economic, health and social crisis that arose from the pandemic.

Among the main data of the study, the following stand out:

• A general decline in the internal and external evaluation of countries. The economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 crisis has created a depressing climate that underestimates the international reputation of countries.
• Spain ranks 14th in the global rankings of prestige among the 55 major economies of the world. Canada, Australia, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden are in the top five, all of which have in common being rich countries, with well-established democracies, considered equal and having a peaceful diplomatic strategy. The United States is well below average and both China and Russia are at the bottom of the ranking.
• Spain improves its position in 14 of the 17 traits analyzed. Spain is highly regarded for its “quality of life” (safe country, natural environment, friendly people…), which makes it an attractive country to travel and live in. Its rating is worse in terms of institutional quality, technology and innovation, economic environment or education. tourism in Spain is recovering from the impact of the epidemic. Spain is improving its position as a recommended destination to visit, rising from 14th in 2020 to 9th in 2021.
• The subjective assessment of Spaniards again falls under the external assessment. The rest of the countries that look worse than seen outside their borders are Argentina, Japan, South Africa and Brazil.