Georgia improves listing on failed states index

Georgia is listed at 55th place out of 178 countries on the Failed States Index for 2013. This is a slight improvement compared to previous years. On top of the list are Somalia, Congo, Sudan and South Sudan. The least failed countries are Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Georgia has a higher ranking than Libya and a lower ranking than Comoros. Russia is in 80th place, Armenia 105th, Azerbaijan 76th, and Turkey 86th. Georgia has improved its score by 0.6% compared to last year, when the country was in 51st place.

The index is made by the Fund for Peace based on 12 indicators that include the social, economic, political and military conditions in each country; demography, natural disasters, diseases, social factors, access to food and water, condition of refugees and IDPs, revenge groups or historical conflict. Results are grouped into four categories: Red for critical, Green for stable. Georgia is in the orange category, which signifies ‘very high warning’.

“Over a five-year period, the country experienced varying degrees of change both for better and for worse. Notable among these was the significantly improved Demographic Pressures score and the significantly worsened Economic Decline, Human Rights and Factionalized Elites scores,” the chapter about Georgia reads.

A higher score indicates more instability. Georgia’s score in 2013 was 84.0. The best ranking in recent years was in 2006, when it had a score of 82.0. The score went up after that, and reached its highest and consequently most unstable level in 2009 with 92.0 points. Since then, Georgia has improved on the organization’s ranking list. (DFWatch)