Which country matches your political views?

The six value axes in plain words

Economy runs from market-led to state-provided services: whether you would rather leave things like healthcare, transport and pensions mostly to markets, or have the state provide more of them. Personal freedom versus social order asks how much room individuals should have to live as they choose, compared with how much weight shared rules and order should carry.

Tradition versus social change covers how quickly you think customs, family norms and institutions should evolve. Secular public life versus religion in public life is about how visible faith should be in schools, law and civic events. Global versus national focus asks whether you lean toward open borders and international cooperation or toward putting national priorities first.

The last axis, growth-first versus environment-first, weighs economic expansion against protecting the environment when the two pull apart. None of the poles is treated as right or wrong. Each statement is worded so that agreeing and disagreeing are both reasonable positions, and you can skip any statement you don't want to answer.

Why a country's position is a blend of policy and social norms

A country's place on each axis is an editorial estimate that mixes two things: typical public policy over time and everyday social norms. A country can have a generous public health system and still be fairly traditional in family life, or be open to trade while being cautious about migration. Blending policy and norms gives a fuller picture than either alone.

That position is not the government of the day and not any party's platform. Governments change, and a single election rarely shifts how a whole society lives. The profiles try to capture the longer-running pattern, and they are labelled approximate because no single number can sum up a country of millions of people with many views.

How to read a surprising result

Start with the Why you match panel. It lists the three axes where your scores sit closest to your top country and the one axis where you differ most. A match often rests on two or three strong overlaps, so a country can rank high even if you disagree with it on one subject you care about a lot.

Next, open the axis chart and compare yourself with each of your top 5. Then open your top country's profile to read its one-line reason per axis and its three nearest countries. If the nearest countries feel more familiar, that tells you which cluster of positions you fall into, which is often more useful than the single name at the top.