Its less that Canada was doing nothing and more that India and Brazil are doing better and since Canada sits near the bottom of the top 10 is gets edged out when another country in the 10-15 position has a good year.
How is Italy in there? Being from Europe I genuinely don't consider Italy a thriving economy at all. I'd figure a Scandinavian country or the Netherlands should be doing better.
Italy's manufacturing sector is pretty huge. Fiat, Leonardo, and Fincantieri are all global heavyweghts. Although I'd imagine being one of the world's top tourist destinations and also having a reputation for both excellent food and prestigious luxury goods doesn't hurt.
It does also just have more people than Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands combined
Italy has a large population and I bet economy in northn Italy is larger than than Denmark and Sweden combined along with nice agricultural land on addition to manufacturing mentioned by @skua
Their stock and property markets were both severely inflated, and the bubble burst. This resulted in a period of stagnation called the Lost Decades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades
I mean.... higher numbers are better yeah, all things equal. America has some serious problems but there's a reason so many people want to come to the United States. The most patriotic people in America are immigrants which says a lot.
Why would they come to America if they thought poorly of it? Immigrating to the US is no trivial matter and requires a large commitment of time and effort. Of course immigrants think highly of the US. Whether or not their perception of America is based in reality is another matter entirely.
Well once they start living here I would say their perception is more valid than pretty much anyone else's. I get that it's a subset of people who are predisposed to like the U.S. but considering how overwhelmingly positive that feedback is, plus the sheer number of immigrants who want to come to the US, that means something.
Most already are, or moving towards it. But no, that's not a good thing.
Though, as America is still the global superpower, the debt really isn't as important as you suggest, but of course I wouldn't speak out against slashing defense spending and hiking taxes on wealthy individuals and big business.
It should be by capita. Of course the US is high, it's a rich western country with a high population. If you included the EU as a whole in that list, it'd probably be close to the top as well.
