A hiker holding a Canada flag over Banff Unsplash

A hiker holding a Canada flag over Banff - Photo credit: Unsplash+ License.

The United States ranks one place ahead of Canada in the 2026 Best Countries rankings from U.S. News & World Report, but the close overall score is not the full story.

The U.S. ranks 18th overall, while Canada ranks 19th among 100 countries, but the category breakdown shows the two countries performing best in very different areas.

Originally published on theroamreport.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.