By Alex Lockie From Business Insider

Iraq, Iran, and Russia find themselves in the headlines daily because of their ongoing military conflicts, human-rights violations, and oppressive regimes.

Unsurprisingly, a report issued Thursday by the Reputation Institute ranks those countries among the least reputable countries in the world.

On the other side are the most admired and reputable countries, of which Canada leads the pack.

The Reputation Institute’s Country Reptrak report “measures the reputation of 55 (largest by GDP) countries based on levels of trust, esteem, admiration and respect based on an online panel of more than 27,000 people representing the G8 countries.”

The report looks at 16 attributes for each nation. Evaluations include the country’s safety, whether the residents are welcoming, whether the government is effectively progressive socially and economically, and even the beauty of the countryside.

Given these criteria, here are the 20 most reputable countries in the world:

Reputation Institute

The Reputation Institute’s Fernando Prado told CTV, “We all love Canada because of several things … absence of corruption … a high level of welfare for the inhabitants, and with friendly and welcoming people.”

Eight of the top 10 nations are very far north, seven of them (all European nations) are or have been militarily neutral in the past, and five are NATO members.

Surprisingly, the US falls just short of cracking the top 20.

Prado explains: “The US has an average reputation … because they don’t have the highest scores in all the different attributes. They have very strong ones in technology, in having strong brands, but not as much in other ones.” Prado describes a negative “emotional halo” surrounding the US, citing that the US scored well in rational areas but less so in emotional ones.

Significantly, the most improved countries included Iran (+10.8%), China (+7.9%), and India (+7.4%).

The chart attached displays all 55 countries rankings, with the US floating just above the global average.

This year’s report also offers interesting data on how countries’ reputations have changed since 2014.

A chart attached shows Egypt and Iran among nations that are actually gaining a fair amount of credibility:

Another chart attached shows includes Qatar among countries with a declining reputation, most likely related to reports of human-rights violations and Qatar’s involvement with the FIFA scandal that blew up earlier this year.

Russia and Ukraine also lost points, as they spent much of the year mired in a bloody conflict.

All charts – The Reputation Institute

For more on this story go to: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-20-countries-ranked-by-reputation-2015-7#ixzz3gGCsGtoG