Since 2013, the Fragile States Index has assessed 178 countries, after initially beginning with only 75 countries in 2005 and 146 in 2006. There are two simple criteria by which a country qualifies to be included in the Fragile States Index:

  • The country must be a member state of the United Nations; and
  • There must be a significant sample size of content and data available for that country to allow for meaningful analysis.

A handful of countries, though UN member states, are not included in the Fragile States Index due to a lack of data. A minimum threshold level of data is necessary for us to be able to make meaningful conclusions for every country across our twelve indicators. For that reason, we do not include the following countries the the Fragile States Index due to a scarcity of available data:

    Andorra
    Dominica
    Kiribati
    Liechtenstein
    Marshall Islands
    Monaco
    Nauru
    Palau
    San Marino
    St. Kitts & Nevis
    St. Lucia
    St. Vincent & the Grenadines
    Tonga
    Tuvalu
    Vanuatu

The Fund for Peace is working to improve data collection and analysis by constantly adding additional sources, and we will continue to monitor the level of content and data available for all eligible countries, and include new countries in our future analysis as circumstances permit.