Because a country's position on an axis is an editorial judgement, not a measurement. Policy and social norms vary across regions and change over time, and a single number on a 0–100 scale can only ever be a rough summary.

Can I suggest a correction?

Yes. If you think a country's position on an axis is off, tell us which country and axis and why. We review suggestions and update profiles where we agree.

No. There is no login and no backend, and your answers stay in your browser, which also saves your progress. A share link carries your answers inside the link itself, so nothing is stored on a server.

How country matching works

This page sets out exactly how the quiz turns your answers into a ranking of 60 countries: the 12 axes, the scoring of each answer, the weighted distance and match % formula, the values/lifestyle slider, how country profiles are set and where they fall short, and what happens when you skip questions or two countries tie. Nothing here is hidden in the tool, and the same rules apply on every page except where a preset changes the weights.

Try Country Compatibility Quiz

The 12 axes and their poles

Six axes cover values, each running from 0 to 100: economy, from market-led to state-provided services; personal freedom to social order; tradition to social change; secular public life to religion in public life; global, open borders to national focus; and growth-first to environment-first.

Six axes cover lifestyle: climate, from cool to warm; pace, from calm, small-town life to big-city buzz; budget, from low cost of living to high-income, high-cost; work, from work-life balance to career intensity; social style, from reserved to expressive; and ties, from individual independence to close family and community. There are two statements per axis, 24 in all.

From answers to axis scores

Each answer is worth −2 for Strongly disagree, −1 for Disagree, 0 for Neutral, +1 for Agree and +2 for Strongly agree. Some statements are worded toward the other pole, and those are flipped before scoring. Your axis score is 50 plus 25 times the average of your two answers on that axis, which always gives a number from 0 to 100.

For example, if you answer Agree (+1) and Strongly agree (+2) on one axis, the average is 1.5. Multiply by 25 to get 37.5, add 50, and your score on that axis is 87.5, well toward the pole those statements point to.

Weighted distance, match % and the slider

The values/lifestyle slider runs from 0 to 100 and starts at 50. The values axes share (100 − slider)% of the weight and the lifestyle axes share slider%, split equally among the axes you answered. At 50, each half counts the same; at 100, only lifestyle counts.

For each country, the quiz takes the gap between your score and the country's on every axis, squares it, multiplies by that axis's weight, adds them up and takes the square root. That is the distance. Match % is 100 × (1 − distance ÷ maximum possible distance), rounded to a whole number, so 100% means identical positions and 0% means as far apart as the scale allows.

How country profiles are set, and their limits

Every country has a position on all 12 axes, set editorially as an approximate estimate of typical public policy and everyday social norms. They do not reflect the government of the day or any party, and we do not claim they come from a particular dataset or study. Each profile in the tool shows its 12 positions with a one-line reason for each.

The positions are country-wide, so they can't capture differences between cities and the countryside, or between regions. They are rough by nature: a single number can't sum up how millions of people live and think. That is why they are labelled approximate throughout the site.

Skipped questions and ties

You can skip any statement. If you skip one of an axis's two statements, the score uses the other. If you skip both, that axis is excluded and its weight is shared among the axes you did answer. You need at least six answered axes to get a result. When two countries have the same match %, the one with the smaller single largest gap from you ranks higher.