Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands IndexSM: 2018 report for Scotland

Introduction

Scotland’s National Performance Framework (NPF) sets out in its purpose, values and National Outcomes, a clear, unified vision for Scotland. The purpose is “to focus on creating a more successful country with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish through increased wellbeing and sustainable and inclusive economic growth”^[2].

A wide range of National Indicators (81 in total) are used to assess progress towards the purpose, values and National Outcomes. These provide a broad measure of national wellbeing, incorporating a range of economic, social and environmental indicators. One of these indicators aims to assess and monitor Scotland’s reputation internationally.

The way a country is perceived can make a difference to the success of its business, trade and tourism efforts, as well as its diplomatic and cultural relations with other countries. Given a changing global context, there is a need to better understand how Scotland is seen and thought about by other countries.

Since 2008 the Scottish Government has used the Anholt-GfK Roper Nations Brands Index^SM (NBI^SM) to measure Scotland’s reputation internationally. Conducted annually since 2008, the NBI^SM examines the reputation of 50 countries. Each year, approximately 20,000 adults, aged 18 and over, in 20 core panel countries are interviewed online.

The Anholt-GfK Roper NBI^SM attempts to measure and rank a country’s broad reputation along six dimensions of national competence, all of which are weighted equally. Scotland’s NBI^SM score is presented as a score out of 100, calculated as an average of the scores given for the six underlying dimensions. The six dimensions are: Exports, Governance, Culture, People, Tourism, and Investment and Immigration.

The rank and scores together provide an overall indication of a country’s reputation. Looking at the scores and ranks together is useful, as individually they may deliver different messages about Scotland’s reputation.

The rank^[3] is informative of a country’s reputation relative to other countries, and may change in relation to other countries’ performance.

The score^[4] may be regarded as a reliable indicator of a country’s reputation over time.

The data allow for an understanding of how Scotland is perceived by an online sample of respondents in 20 panel countries around the world, how an online sample of people from Scotland perceive Scotland itself, and how these perceptions compare with those of respondents from other countries included in the NBI^SM.

While being the best available measure of Scotland’s reputation for the purpose of the NPF, the NBI^SM does not provide an evaluation of the Scottish Government’s policies. NBI^SM data should be viewed as a snapshot of people’s attitudes and perceptions of Scotland which are useful in helping us to understand more about Scotland’s international reputation.

Scotland subscribed to the survey in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and thereafter biennially, in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. Scotland did not subscribe to the 2011, 2013 and 2017 surveys, but was included in the sample of 50 evaluated countries in these years.

The full methodology report has been published alongside this report^[5]. This report will compare the 2018 data to the most recent previously available data in 2016, as well as previous years where relevant. Any increase or decrease mentioned in this report has not been significance tested. Annex A, within the methodology report, provides details of how the Scottish Government has adopted some aspects of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics on a voluntary basis for the Nation Brands Index^SM: 2018 report for Scotland.