Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan has been upgraded in the "failed states" rankings compiled by leading US think tanks, taking the 63rd spot, an improvement from last year’s 55th ranking.

Finland topped the list of 177 countries, as it was in the bottom of the Failed States Index, the annual ranking of the world's most vulnerable countries prepared by the Fund for Peace and published by Foreign Policy magazine. Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark were among the least vulnerable countries as well.

Three African states -- Somalia, Chad, and Sudan -- once again top this year's index. For four years in a row, Somalia has held the No. 1 spot, indicating the depth of the crisis in the international community's longest-running failure, the report said.

As for Azerbaijan’s neighbors, Russia’s ranking improved two spots to 82nd this year. Georgia is 47th, an improvement from the 37th ranking reported in 2010. Turkey is far ahead of its neighbors, ranking 104th. The ranking of Armenia remains unchanged, but it significantly surpasses Azerbaijan, as it stands 101st.

The new edition of the index draws on some 130,000 publicly available sources to analyze countries and rate them on 12 indicators of pressure on the state during 2010 -- from refugee flows to poverty, public services to security threats.

According to the report, the latest results show how much the 2008 economic crisis and its ripple effects, from collapsing trade to soaring food prices to stagnant investment, are still haunting the world.