03 Jan 2023; MEMO: The UAE has been ranked as first in the Middle East and ninth globally in terms of power according to the US News Best Countries rankings.
"The power sub rankings is based on an equally weighted average of scores from five country attributes that relate to a country's power: a leader, economically influential, politically influential and strong military," the website explains.
The Gulf state rose one place from last year's rankings and is currently in 21st place in the Best Countries Overall ranking.
Out of the attributes considered in the Power category, the UAE scored its highest rating under "Economically influential" at 90.9 while scoring 19.1 for "Strong military".
The US, China and Russia were the planet's most powerful countries in 2022, while Switzerland grabbed the number one spot for Best Country Overall, followed by Germany and Canada.
In a separate index published last month by Canadian financial advisory firm, Arton Capital, the UAE passport was ranked as the world's most powerful travel document, coming first place in a top-ten dominated by European countries.
