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The Fragile State Index - which countries are most likely to not exist

The Fragile State Index or FSI (formerly the Failed State Index) is a ranking of countries by the American think tank Fund for Peace. The highest possible score (indicating the most fragile) is 120, based on a score from 0 to 10 in 12 factors in 5 categories. These factors are:

Cohesion
Security apparatus
Factionalized elites
Group grievance

Economic
Economic decline and poverty
Uneven development
Human flight and brain drain

Political
State legitimacy
Public services
Human rights and rule of law

Social
Demographic pressures
Refugees and internally displaced persons

Cross-cutting
External intervention

In this table, the median based on score would be 60, but the table lists 179 countries, so the median based on rank would be number 90, which is Ecuador with a score of 68.0. The most fragile 10 percent, in descending order, are:

Somalia - 111.3 (least stable in Africa and least stable worldwide)
Sudan - 109.3
South Sudan - 109.0
Syria - 108.1 (least stable in Middle East)
Congo-Kinshasa - 106.7
Yemen - 106.6
Afghanistan - 103.9 (least stable in Asia outside Middle East)
Central African Republic - 103.9
Haiti - 103.5 (least stable in western hemisphere)
Chad - 102.7
Myanmar - 100.0 (least stable in east Asia)
Ethiopia - 98.1
Palestine - 97.8
Mali - 97.3
Nigeria - 96.6
Libya - 96.5
Guinea - 96.4

Other countries of interest:

Ukraine, #22 at 93.1 (least stable in Europe)
Venezuela, #30 at 89.0 (least stable in South America)
North Korea, #40 at 84.9
Iran, #43 at 82.9
Russia, #48 at 81.6
India, #75 at 72.3
Mexico, #83 at 69.0

Now we get to countries in the bottom half, the 50% most stable:

China, #99 at 64.4
Saudi Arabia, #103 at 63.2
Cuba, #112 at 59.1
Botswana, #124 (most stable in Africa)
Israel, #129 at 51.5
United States, #141 at 44.5
Qatar, #149 at 39.8 (most stable in Middle East)
Uruguay, #159 at 33.7, (most stable in South America)
Singapore, #165 at 25.4 (most stable in Asia)
Canada, #172 at 18.6
Norway, #179 at 12.7 (most stable in Europe and worldwide)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Fragile_States_Index
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The FSI should not be taken as a prediction of which countries will collapse or break up next, as it does not account for movement in one direction or the other, or speed of movement. It's possible for a high-scoring country to remain at that level, and a lower-scoring country to be moving in the direction of greater instability.

There's also the question of what constitutes "breakup" or "collapse." Last year, Somaliland broke away from Somalia, but doesn't appear on this list not just because it came into existence too recently, but because it hasn't been formally recognized by any country except Israel. Somalia itself considers Somaliland to be a federal member state, so by that standard, Somalia is still intact.
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@jshm2 I agree, but Norway is definitely more stable than Somalia.

 
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