The Anholt Nation Brands Index®: 2024 report for Scotland

Conclusion

Scotland’s score of 65.1 and rank of 15^th on the NBI show that Scotland continues to have a strong reputation abroad. Countries that did better than Scotland and ranked in the Top 10 were Japan, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Australia, and France.

Scotland received a marginally lower score in 2024 (65.1) than it did in 2022 (65.3), with an overall decrease of 0.2 points. Scotland’s relative rank has remained consistent with 2022 at 15^th.

When all six NBI dimensions of Scotland’s reputation are considered, People, Governance and Tourism continue to be the most highly regarded dimensions by respondents from around the world, with People increasing notably from 2022. ‘Natural beauty’ continues to be perceived as Scotland’s strongest attribute across all dimensions.

Exports continues to be Scotland’s weakest dimension, receiving both the joint lowest score and the lowest rank. This is the only dimension to rank outside the Top 20. ‘Contribution to innovation and science’ (from the Exports dimension) is Scotland’s lowest ranked attribute across the six dimensions, and the is tied for lowest scoring attribute with ‘Excellence in sports’ (from the Culture dimension).

Respondents from certain countries are more familiar with Scotland and therefore better able to judge its strengths. English-speaking countries, European neighbours, Commonwealth countries are the most favourable towards and familiar with Scotland. Respondents in Japan and South Korea were the least familiar and favourable towards Scotland, with Scotland receiving the lowest overall scores from these panel countries. Nonetheless, respondents in these countries ranked Scotland relatively well with South Korea ranking Scotland 19^th and Japan ranking Scotland 16^th.

As Scotland’s score has decreased only slightly, by 0.2 points from 2022 to 2024, the change is below the 1.0 point threshold for changes to the National Performance Framework Indicator ‘Scotland’s reputation’. Therefore, the indicator update is proposed to be that Scotland’s reputation is ‘maintaining’ internationally. The update will be reviewed by the National Performance Framework Technical Advisory Group and will be confirmed and published soon.