In their annual report “The Failed States Index” examining 177 countries and measuring their degree of instability in 12 sectors, the US-based think tank the Fund For Peace in conjuction with the Foreign Policy Magazine rank Lithuania No. 146 – one of the highest among the new EU Member States as well as one of the most stable and viable countries of the world.

The Failed States Index ranks 177 states according to 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators - demographic pressures; refugees/IDPs; group grievance; human flight; uneven development; economic decline; delegitimization of the state; public services; human rights; security apparatus; factionalized elites; and external intervention - based on data from more than 90,000 publicly available sources.

Lithuania outpaces other new EU Members Slovakia (No. 143), Poland (142), Hungary (141), Estonia (140), Latvia (136), Romania (128) and Bulgaria (126) in the ranking.

Three Nordic nations – Norway (177), Finland (176) and Sweden (175) - are ranked as the most stable countries. The top ten failing states are Somalia (1), Chad (2), Sudan (3), Zimbabwe (4), DR Congo (5), Afghanistan (6), Iraq (7), Central African Republic (8), Guinea (9), and Pakistan (10). Somalia is placed No. 1 for the third year running.