International rankings

• Global Peace Index
  Global Peace Index
  The Global Peace Index is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. It is the product of Institute for Economics and Peace and developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks with data collected...
  
   2009: Ranks 11th out of 144 countries
• Education - "Science performance" Index 2009: High positions in rankings
• Human Development Index
  Human Development Index
  The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...
  
   2007: Ranks 32nd out of 178 countries
• Index of Economic Freedom
  Index of Economic Freedom
  The Index of Economic Freedom is a series of 10 economic measurements created by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. Its stated objective is to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations....
  
   2007: Ranks 31st out of 157 countries
• Reporters Without Borders
  Reporters Without Borders
  Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
  
   worldwide press freedom index 2007: Ranks 14th out of 169 countries
• Global Competitiveness Report
  Global Competitiveness Report
  The Global Competitiveness Report is a yearly report published by the World Economic Forum. The first report was released in 1979. The 2011–2012 report covers 142 major and emerging economies....
  
   2006: Ranks 29th out of 125 countries
• Democracy Index
  Democracy Index
  The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit that claims to measure the state of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 165 are UN member states...
  
   (January 2007): Ranks 18th of 167 countries (the highest rank of functioning democracy, along with only 27 others)
• It was also ranked as the highest alcohol-consuming nation by The Economist
  The Economist
  The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
  
  in 2006.