The United States ranked No. 18 overall in U.S. News & World Report‘s 2026 Best Countries rankings, but placed No. 33 in health among the 100 countries evaluated across categories including health, infrastructure, governance and economic development.
The rankings use a revamped data-driven methodology based on 100 indicators from more than 30 organizations, including the World Bank, the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Health accounted for 15.3% of the overall ranking weight and evaluated countries across healthcare, mortality and longevity, and public health preparedness measures. More information about the methodology is available here.
Here are three notes from the report:
1. The United States’ No. 18 overall ranking reflects wide variation across the report’s eight categories. While the U.S. ranked No. 2 in economic development and No. 1 in culture and tourism, it ranked No. 39 in infrastructure, No. 33 in health and No. 41 in civic health.
2. Iceland ranked No. 1 in health, followed by Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and Japan. According to the report, smaller, coordinated healthcare systems tended to outperform larger nations in the category.
3. The health category evaluated countries across three subcategories: mortality and longevity, public health preparedness and healthcare. Metrics included life expectancy, maternal mortality, immunization coverage, hospital beds, physician supply and universal health coverage.
