Northern Ireland on the world stage – how do other nations view us?

The NI Executive Office has published the ‘Anholt Ipsos Nation Brands Index: 2020 report for Northern Ireland’ – whcich provides a measure of Northern Ireland’s international reputation.

Key findings include Northern Ireland’s international reputation remains stable, achieving an overall ranking of 22 out of 50 nations. Our reputation is strongest with China, the UK and European nations. In 2020, NI received its highest ranks from China (13th), the United Kingdom (17th) and Germany (20th). The lowest rank in 2019 was from Egypt, who placed Northern Ireland 39th.

Northern Ireland achieved a Nation Brands Index score of 59.16 – this is the second highest score achieved since inclusion in the Index in 2016. Our highest score was from China (69.84) and the lowest score came from Japan (51.27).

Natural Beauty

As in all previous years, “Natural beauty” was the attribute with the highest score in 2020 with 5.11. The lowest scoring attribute has also been consistent across all years – “Sports” scored 4.04 in 2020.

Visiting Northern Ireland or digital exposure to NI (through buying NI products / visiting websites) was associated with significantly higher scores for all Six Dimensions and for their overall NBI score.

Global survey

The NBISM is an annual global survey which attempts to evaluate the international image and reputation of 50 nations across six dimensions of national competence: Exports; Governance; Culture; People; Tourism; and Immigration and Investment.

The 2020 NBI involved the completion of over 20,000 online surveys, in 20 panel countries, with at least 1,000 people surveyed per panel country.