The Fund for Peace (FFP), using thousands of reports, articles, and intelligence documents, ranks the world's countries with respect to their political, social, and economic stability. The results (the" Failed States Index 2012") appear on FFP's website, and are published annually in Foreign Policy magazine.
For the page below, I have chosen the 14 countries with scores above 100 (our of 120 possible) and added demographic data from the Population Reference Bureau's "World Population Data Sheet 2012." Scores are tabulated from an analysis of 12 categories of risk factors for each country. The higher the score, the more unstable and vulnerable the country.
I have also included, for comparison, the United States, and the four most stable countries, according to the index. (Note: South Sudan will likely have a score greater than 100, but a complete year's worth of data has not been analyzed.)
Over the eight years the rankings have been published, some countries have improved and some have deteriorated. In 2006 there were 12 countries with scores greater than 100.
Vulnerable states increase and intensify the population challenges we face-especially as we add another two billion people in the next 37 years.
Table of vulnerable states as compiled by the Fund for Peace combined with data from the Population Reference Bureau's World Population Data Sheet 2012.
