The Anholt Nation Brands Index®: 2024 report for Scotland

Scotland’s reputation overall

Scotland’s position on the NBI

Scotland’s 2024 score is 65.1^[12] and ranks 15^th place out of the 50 countries included in the survey. This places Scotland in the Top 20 countries in the NBI 2024, and indicates that Scotland has a high level of international recognition.^[13] Scotland’s overall reputation in terms of the NBI score has maintained^[14] between 2022 and 2024 (65.3 and 65.1 respectively). Figure 1 shows that Scotland’s relative rank has maintained since 2022.

Looking across the time series, Scotland’s reputation was maintained at the same level between 2008 (when Scotland joined the survey) and 2012, and overall improved between 2012 and 2024.

Scotland’s score of 65.1 places it in the 7^th decile of countries measured,^[15] far closer to the country with the top score of 69.9 than the country with the bottom score of 44.4. Countries that did better than Scotland and ranked in the Top 10 were Japan, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Australia and France.

Table 1 shows how people in different demographic groups score and rank Scotland. With regard to gender, men tended to score Scotland’s reputation slightly higher than women (65.4 and 64.8 respectively). Notably, respondents in the 30 to 44 years age group tended to score Scotland’s reputation higher (66.5) than respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 years (64.3) and 45 years and over (64.6).

In relation to occupation, the data only allow disaggregation between business/executives and other occupations.^[16] Those in the former group tended to view Scotland more positively in terms of Scotland’s reputation score (69.3) than those in other occupations (63.5).

Additionally, those who have had some exposure to Scotland, whether having visited a Scottish website (68.3 compared to 60.8 who hadn’t visited a Scottish website) or having visited Scotland for business and/or holiday (67.5 compared to 60.9 who hadn’t visited Scotland), scored Scotland’s reputation higher than those with little or no exposure to Scotland.

In nearly all of Scotland’s dimensions and their underlying attributes, similar patterns were seen across the demographic groups. However, women scored Scotland slightly higher than men on People and Tourism. See Annex A for summary findings on each of Scotland’s dimensions and their underlying attributes broken down by demographic group.

Scotland’s reputation in the 20 core panel countries^[17]

In 2024, Scotland received its highest overall scores from India (71.9), the United Kingdom (69.2) and Mexico (69.0). A notable change is in the score from China, who gave Scotland one of its highest scores in 2022 (71.2) but one of Scotland’s lower scores in 2024 (63.8).

Scotland’s lowest scores were from Japan (54.0), South Korea (59.7) and Russia (60.2). Scotland also received its lowest scores from these countries in 2022.

Figure 2 shows Scotland’s 2024 rank by each of the 20 core panel countries, and how this compares with 2022. As was the case in 2022, in 2024 Scotland received its highest overall rank from respondents in the United Kingdom. There was a slight increase in the rank from the United Kingdom, who ranked Scotland 4^th in 2022 and 2^nd in 2024. Scotland’s other highest ranks in 2024 were from Australia (7^th), Sweden (10^th) and Germany (10^th). This represents a shift from 2022 when Scotland’s highest ranks from outside of the United Kingdom were from the United States and Canada (9^th and 11^th, respectively). In 2024, Scotland’s rank from the United States and Canada decreased (13^th and 15^th).

Scotland received its lowest ranks from Saudi Arabia (27^th), Argentina (23^rd), India and Poland (both 22^nd). This is similar to 2022, although Scotland’s rank from South Korea improved in 2024 (19^th) and the rank from Poland worsened (22^nd).

In 2024, Scotland received higher scores from 10 countries than in 2022 (United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Türkiye, Germany, Argentina, France, Russia and South Korea). Most notable are improvements in score from the United Kingdom and Türkiye. Scotland’s score decreased in 10 countries (India, South Africa, Canada, Sweden, United States, Saudi Arabia, Italy, China, Poland, and Japan). The biggest decrease in score from 2022 to 2024 was from China.

Compared to 2022, Scotland’s rank in 2024 was higher in eight countries (United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Germany, France, Japan, Russia and South Korea), stable in one country (Brazil) and lower in 11 countries (United States, Italy, Canada, China, Türkiye, South Africa, Mexico, Poland, India, Argentina, and Saudi Arabia).

It is important to view the scores and ranks together, as individually they may portray different messages about a country’s performance. The overall NBI score is the average score across all 6 dimensions of reputation (Exports, Governance, Culture, People, Tourism, Immigration and Investment). The rank, on the other hand, is indicative of a country’s reputation relative to the other countries in the survey. Changes in rank, therefore, can occur independently to changes in score, and are influenced by changes in other country’s scores.

The distribution of scores can vary considerably between panel countries, with some tending to give out higher scores than others. For example, India gave Scotland a high overall NBI score of 71.9. This was the highest score that Scotland received from any of the panel countries. However, this high score translates to a relatively low rank from India (22^nd). This is because overall, India tends to give out very high scores across the survey, and so out of the 50 countries India scored, this was the 22^nd highest score India gave. Conversely, Scotland’s overall NBI score from France was relatively low (62.8), but as France tends to give out lower scores across the survey, this translated into a rank of 14^th for Scotland.

Familiarity with Scotland

At the start of the NBI survey, respondents are asked to rate how familiar they are with each country. The responses to these questions on familiarity are presented as the percentage of respondents who had at least some knowledge of Scotland.

As shown in Table 2, below, in 2024 68% of respondents reported being familiar with Scotland, consistent with 2022. While the familiarity score remains unchanged, Scotland’s familiarity ranking has decreased slightly from 24^th in 2022 to 25^th in 2024.

Variations between panel countries

Figure 4 shows levels of familiarity with Scotland across the 20 panel countries in 2024 and 2022. As was the case in 2022, in 2024 the United Kingdom^[18] (96%), Sweden (83%) and Poland (84%) reported the highest levels of familiarity with Scotland. Eighty percent of respondents from Australia also reported having some level of familiarity with Scotland, which was similarly high in 2022. While in general European countries reported high familiarity with Scotland, France remains an outlier as the third least familiar with Scotland, with 49.8% of respondents reporting familiarity with Scotland. While this is a low score, it can be seen across 2022 and 2024 that France tends to report a low level of familiarity with all of the measured nations (average 45.5% familiar with all 50 countries). Scotland’s lowest familiarity scores in 2024 were from Japan (42.5%) and South Korea (46.3).

Between 2022 and 2024, 12 of 20 panel countries reported slightly increased familiarity with Scotland. The biggest increases were seen in the United States, Germany, and Brazil. Familiarity with Scotland decreased in 2024 compared to 2022 in eight countries. Considerable decreases were reported in Saudi Arabia, China and Japan.

Favourability towards Scotland

At the start of the NBI survey, respondents were asked to rate how favourable they are towards Scotland on a scale of 1.0 to 7.0 (with 1.0 being extremely unfavourable and 7.0 being extremely favourable).^[19]

Table 3 shows that Scotland was rated relatively highly in terms of favourability (score of 5.0 out of 7.0) with a rank of 13^th out of 50 participating nations. Scotland’s favourability score and rank remain the same as in 2022.

Variations between panel countries

Figure 5 shows levels of favourability towards Scotland across the 20 panel countries in 2022 and 2024. The highest favourability scores for Scotland in 2024 were from the United Kingdom^[20] (5.5) and Australia (5.3). The United States, India, Canada, Sweden, Italy, and Germany all scored Scotland highly on favourability (5.2). Respondents in Japan were least favourable towards Scotland (4.3), with Saudi Arabia and South Korea both also giving Scotland relatively low scores (4.6). While these countries gave Scotland its lowest favourability scores in 2024, the scores are all above the midway point, suggesting that Scotland is viewed comparatively positively by panel countries. These favourability scores remain generally unchanged from 2022.