Have you ever wondered how similar or different two countries are? The Country Similarity Index attempts to quantify how similar countries are to each other relative to other countries. For example, one might intuitively know that Germany is more like the United States than Iran but less like the United States than Canada. The index is a statistically-based way to measure this. The index weights equally five major aspects of countries: their demographics, culture, politics, technology, and geography. The research combines 1,000 different data points to reach its conclusions. Please see the above YouTube video for a quick overview. The following paragraphs explain the exact criteria for the index more in depth:
Overall Rubric
Demographics
Individuals & their personal characteristics
- Ancestry: Race and Genetics
- Language: Native Languages
- Religion: Religious Background
- Age: Average Age, Child Population, Elderly Population
- Education: Average Education, Literacy Rate, College Graduation Rate
- Employment: Average Unemployment, Occupation
- Income: Average Income, Poverty Rate, Millionaire Rate
- Anatomy: Height, Weight, Gender, Circumcision
Culture
Society & its common activities
- Language: Native Language, Official Language, and Lingua Franca
- Religion: Religious Practices
- Writing: Official Scripts
- Behavior: Personality and Violence
- Tradition: Holidays and Marriage Practices
- Recreation: Team and Olympic Sports
- Food: Meat, Dairy, Fruits, Vegetables, and Starches
- Narcotics: Alcohol, Drugs, and Smoking
Politics
Government & its adopted policies
- Government: Form of government, methods of their election, authoritarianism, and censorship
- Enforcement: Rule of Law, Legal System, and Punishment
- Cooperation: Common Currency, Trade Blocs, Defense Alliances
- Restrictions: Gun Control, Narcotic Prohibition, Gambling Laws
- Prohibitions: Marriage Regulations, Obscenity Laws, Reproductive Rights
- Entitlements: Health Care, Education, Welfare, Pension, and Paid Vacation
- Requirements: Conscription, Jury Duty, Compulsory Education, Mandatory Voting, and Tax Obligation
- Movement: Citizenship Rights, Right of Abode, Visa Policy, and Immigration Policy
Infrastructure
Technology & its typical use
- Transportation: Cars, Trains, Airplanes, Ships
- Water: Water Access, Water Use, and Water Source
- Energy: Electrical Access, Energy Use, and Energy Source
- Sanitation: Water Quality, Water Potability, Sewerage, and Trash Collection
- Electrification: Electricity Outlets, Electrical Voltage & Frequency, Grid
- Communication: Television, Phones, and Internet
- Medication: Doctors and Hospital Infrastructure
- Protection: Weapons and Military Sophistication
Geography
Environment & its physical features
- Climate: Temperature and Precipitation
- Vegetation: Biomes, Agriculture, and Floristic Region
- Land Cover: Forest Land, Agricultural Land, Shrub Land, Barren Land
- Location: Longitude, Latitude
- Landmass: Continent, Tectonic Plate, and Hydrologic Region
- Habitation: Population Density and Built Environment
- Topography: Elevation and Slope
- Hydrology: Inland Water and Coastal Water
A full distance matrix of all countries was completed, revealing similarities and differences between individual countries.
The data from the Index was then used to generate a data-based Regions of the World Map.
Notes
- If a characteristic was nearly universal, then it was not included in the calculation. For example, only the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar have not adopted the metric system. Therefore this characteristic was not used since it would not make a difference for a vast majority of comparisons.
- Similarly, if a characteristic is almost never shared between countries, then it was not included in the calculation as well. For example, only Cyprus and Greece share the same exact national anthem. In addition, only a handful of countries share the same anthem melody. Therefore this characteristic was not used since it would not make a difference for a vast majority of comparisons.
- Some characteristics are difficult to quantify or hard to find statistics for. For example, art and architecture would have been included into the index if there were relevant statistics readily available. However, since over 100 individual statistics were used, adding in more would not significantly change the overall score for a country. In addition, many statistics highly correlate with one another.
- Only countries and territories with a population of more than 500,000 people or more than 2,000 sq. kilometers were considered. No country or territory with less than 50,000 people were considered.
- The index has been slightly revised since it was first created in response to feedback. This is version 3.0. Language, writing system, land cover, and ancestry have been given a heavier weight than in the first iteration. However, these maps should not be construed to be language maps. Countries as various as the United States, Nigeria, Philippines, India, and South Africa all have English as one of their lingua francas, but they are quite different countries in many other aspects.
Hi! As a numbers nerd, I must say this looks like a highly interesting way of comparing countrys. I’m impressed by the work it must have taken to compile all this data! However, I find it unfortunate that the availability of the data is so low – only for a few countries, and without any way to see the details of why a country ranks like it does. I am a web developer, and if you’d like, I could help build a front end for browsing the data. All I need for that would be access to the raw data, which I am so interested in seeing anyway that I wouldn’t require any further payment. Alternatively, if you don’t think such a visualization is wanted/necessary, I’d like to request to see the raw data regardless – if you’re okay with it, of course.
Thanks for reaching out. I’ll email you.
Make one for Algeria please
definitely planning to… but it might not be for a while because I have a set order that is difficult to change
Can you post us the order?
This is my plan… could change slightly
1 USA
2 CHINA
3 GERMANY
4 SAUDI ARABIA
5 AUSTRALIA
6 INDIA
7 BRAZIL
8 NIGERIA
9 RUSSIA
10 CANADA
11 JAPAN
12 FRANCE
13 TURKEY
14 PHILIPPINES
15 PAKISTAN
16 ARGENTINA
17 CAMEROON
18 POLAND
19 MEXICO
20 THAILAND
21 GREAT BRITAIN
22 EGYPT
23 INDONESIA
24 IRAN
25 BOLIVIA
26 SOUTH AFRICA
27 GREECE
28 CUBA
29 SOUTH KOREA
30 ITALY
31 ALGERIA
32 NEW ZEALAND
33 AFGHANISTAN
34 VENEZUELA
35 SOMALIA
36 UKRAINE
37 GUATEMALA
38 MONGOLIA
39 SPAIN
40 ISRAEL
41 PAPUA NEW GUINEA
42 SRI LANKA
43 CHILE
44 KENYA
45 ROMANIA
46 HAITI
47 VIETNAM
48 IRELAND
49 YEMEN
50 FIJI
51 BANGLADESH
52 COLOMBIA
53 ANGOLA
54 BOSNIA
55 JAMAICA
56 NORTH KOREA
57 SWITZERLAND
58 LEBANON
59 MALAYSIA
60 KAZAKHSTAN
61 PARAGUAY
62 ETHIOPIA
63 FINLAND
64 COSTA RICA
65 BHUTAN
66 NETHERLANDS
67 IRAQ
68 SINGAPORE
69 TURKMENISTAN
70 GUYANA
71 SENEGAL
72 CZECHIA
73 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
74 CAMBODIA
75 ICELAND
76 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
77 SAMOA
78 NEPAL
79 PERU
80 GHANA
81 LITHUANIA
82 TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
83 LAOS
84 PORTUGAL
85 TUNISIA
86 SOLOMON ISLANDS
87 TAJIKISTAN
88 SURINAME
89 MOZAMBIQUE
90 ALBANIA
91 EL SALVADOR
92 MYANMAR
93 NORWAY
94 SYRIA
95 BRUNEI
96 UZBEKISTAN
97 ECUADOR
98 IVORY COAST
99 HUNGARY
100 BELIZE
101 TAIWAN
102 BELGIUM
103 QATAR
104 EAST TIMOR
105 KYRGYZSTAN
106 URUGUAY
107 BOTSWANA
108 CROATIA
109 MOROCCO
110 SWEDEN
111 MADAGASCAR
112 JORDAN
113 DEM REP CONGO
114 BELARUS
115 SUDAN
116 AZERBAIJAN
117 MALI
118 HONDURAS
119 TANZANIA
120 AUSTRIA
121 BURKINA FASO
122 LIBYA
123 UGANDA
124 SERBIA
125 NIGER
126 NICARAGUA
127 MALAWI
128 DENMARK
129 CHAD
130 OMAN
131 ZAMBIA
132 SLOVAKIA
133 SOUTH SUDAN
134 KUWAIT
135 GUINEA
136 PANAMA
137 ZIMBABWE
138 MAURITANIA
139 RWANDA
140 ARMENIA
141 BENIN
142 BULGARIA
143 BURUNDI
144 GEORGIA
145 TOGO
146 SLOVENIA
147 SIERRA LEONE
148 MOLDOVA
149 REP CONGO
150 NORTH MACEDONIA
151 LIBERIA
152 LATVIA
153 CENT AFR REP
154 BAHAMAS
155 NAMIBIA
156 MONTENEGRO
157 GABON
158 VANUATU
159 ERITREA
160 ESTONIA
161 GUINEA BISSAU
162 CYPRUS
163 LESOTHO
164 LUXEMBOURG
165 EQUAT. GUINEA
166 MAURITIUS
167 DJIBOUTI
168 BAHRAIN
169 ESWATINI
170 CAPE VERDE
171 GAMBIA
madagascar
Hello!! I love these maps and thank you very much for it!!!, but the colors you use to show similarity puzzles me a bit, an example is the first image that appears now, it seems to me that it should be the correct one for the United States unlike the other you put in ”Which Countries are Most Similar to the United States?” Where countries with slightly more than 50% (which should be almost white or a very light red) similarity appear to have much less than 50% due to the color scale (they appear very blue as if they had 45% or 35%). The color palette that always appears on the left side, seems to contradict it.
Some examples:
Sweden has 64.8% of similarity but appears white that correspond to countries with barely 49-51%
Colombia has 58.6% but the blue makes it look less than 50%
Anyway regards from distance!
Right, essentially 30 is the lowest score so that is the zero point. Then I chose 65 as the mid point and 100 as the high point. I figured out this system made the most sense to describe the data.
Love your work. Interesting and impressive data collection. Is there a way to acces the raw data? I’m so interested in having a look at it.
Thank you! I am still working on putting more of the data on the site in the future.
Hello. i really appreciate the tremendous effort you’ve put on this website. 😊
and i was wondering if you’re going to make one about Jordan too. that would be superb..
thank you! I am doing all the countries so I will be doing Jordan too
Hello! Thank you for your work, it’s incredibly interesting project. Please fix the error: when I click on Countries most similar to Bosnia, it addresses to Greece.
thanks! but not sure where this error is…
It’s already not there, thank you!
Hello, my name is Nimrod,
First of all, I want to say that the research you are doing is truly fascinating and I’m personally grateful for the fact that you’re making all of this data available online.
I currently work for an NGO called Pnima which aims to formulate and promote social policy making in Israel.
As of now, I’m doing research on comparing Israel to different countries worldwide and I came accross your website.
I was wondering whether there’s a chance of getting access to your data?
This will be extremely beneficial to the research I’m trying to do.
I will of course gladly elaborate on this organization and what I’m looking for.
Cheers for all the incredible work you’re doing. It is truly impressive!
Sincerely,
Nimrod
Thanks! Which data are you specifically looking for? I could email you it
Hi, I would love to write to you via mail.
Mine is nimrodrg@gmail.com
Thank you so much!
Hi! Great Job!. I’m fascinated by this research you’ve done, and thank you for making all of this data available online.
If there’s no problem, I was wondering if I could request to see the raw data too. Especially the geography one for some research I’m doing.
And again, thank you so much!
Thanks, send your email address. It looks like Portland State University’s data was unfortunately taken down from their website, which was heavily used for the geography part. But I still have some of the files.
Hi Jeff, how are you?
I tried reaching you via mail. We would love to arrange a zoom meeting to further present you what we are trying to research and also to fully understand some of the data that you’ve collected.
Again, it’s highly impressive and we are extremely grateful for your help!
Let me know if you’re up to it – nimrodrg@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Nimrod
U forget puerto rico that is way similar to colombiaa! xd
You rock.