Which countries are the most forward thinking? See it visualised

[Abingdonboy]

Germany is the most forward thinking country in the world, knocking the UK off the top spot, according to the Future Orientation Index. UCL's Dr Suzy Moat and Warwick Business School Associate Professor Tobias Preis have analysed more than 45bn Google queries to assemble the index and have mapped the results

Germany is the most forward thinking country in the world according to the Future Orientation Index 2012 created by academics from University College London (UCL) and Warwick University, who analysed more than 45bn Google queries to find that Germany had searched for the future more than any other country.

Despite holding the number one spot in the 2011, the UK has slipped to fourth place in the new ranking. The index, created by UCL's Dr Suzy Moat and Warwick Business School Associate Professor Tobias Preis, involved analysing millions of Google logs from 2012 for 45 different countries. Using the Google logs, they calculated the ratio of the volume of searches for 2013 to the volume of searches for 2011.

Previous research using this search data has found an interesting relationship between the users who search for more information on the future and the GDP per capita of their country. Dr Suzy Moat explains:

"We see two leading explanations for this relationship between search activity and GDP. Firstly, these findings may reflect international differences in attention to the future and the past, where a focus on the future supports economic success. Secondly, these findings may reflect international differences in the type of information sought online, perhaps due to economic influences on available Internet infrastructure."


The Future Orientation Index, as displayed above, shows the ranking of each country and also their 2011 rankings. The biggest climber was Nigeria, moving up 15 places with Japan also making a leap from ninth position to third in the 2012 rankings.

Preis and Moat introduced the Future Orientation Index together with their colleagues Prof Steven R. Bishop (UCL) and Prof H Eugene Stanley (Boston University) in 2012, in a paper published in Scientific Reports.

Which countries are the most forward thinking? See it visualised | News | guardian.co.uk

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

LOL what, they used Google logs to see who searched more about 2013 compared to 2011?

Even if that made any sense, we use Baidu as a search engine.

 

[A.Rafay]

Pakistan made it to the list!!

 

[Abingdonboy]

Pakistan made it to the list!!

The survey was of 45 select nations- Pakistan is 45/45.

LOL what, they used Google logs to see who searched more about 2013 compared to 2011?

Even if that made any sense, we use Baidu as a search engine.

I agree- it is not at all scientific.

 

[KRAIT]

Sample size is huge but I would like to know what parameters they used for this study.

And I won't count on it as good indicator because it is based on Google Queries, whereas majority of population in India doesn't have access to internet.

@Chinese-Dragon As you said, you all use Baidu, this also mean a significant population even among internet users is divided.

This research should include rate of change of parameters to have better understanding that how fast people are becoming forward thinking. Instead of Absolute study, it should be Relative.

 

[Raphael]

wow @ saudi arabia.

 

[dreamer53320]

Correlationship................................bad science is bad

I remember a research a while ago linking chocolate consumption to the amount of Nobel Laureates awarded ......

 

[fobcoder]

saudi arabia ahead of Canada? L.O.L

 

[rcrmj]

wow @ saudi arabia.

maybe forward thinking on how to waste money or how many wifes gonna have??

 

[Götterdämmerung]

Err, this is the most absurd conclusion based on some random google queries. Since I know the mentality of my people, I would rather interpret is the other way. Although we have some of the brightest minds in engineering and technology, we are still a bunch of technolgy sceptics and alway worry that rainy days are just around the corner because we have been doing well for too long and everyone is living at our expense, those lazy foreigners and South Europeans.

 

[Chak Bamu]

@Götterdämmerung I was going to thank your post, because I was thinking along the same lines, but then I read the last sentence of your post.

Querying for future is not necessarily forward thinking. It could be related to anxiety as well. About Pakistan being last of the pile, well we are too focused on current situation as it is.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

@Götterdämmerung I was going to thank your post, because I was thinking along the same lines, but then I read the last sentence of your post.

Querying for future is not necessarily forward thinking. It could be related to anxiety as well. About Pakistan being last of the pile, well we are too focused on current situation as it is.

I was just quoting the sentiment of my ordinary countrymen/women. Of course there are other Germans who are more open-minded and don't think all foreigners and South European are lazy and living at our expense. But the average "Otto Normal" as we call them is pessimistic, technology averse and borderline xenophobic.

 

[Developereo]

My sympathies to the British taxpayers who funded this "study" of google logs.

 

[KRAIT]

My sympathies to the British taxpayers who funded this "study" of google logs.

Sir jee, these research projects help in creating models for predicting the response of population, how to measure social temperature and their possible reaction for new policies, product, ideology etc. They also help in pattern recognition.

Its very important research and its application are often not thought by general people. The usage of these models and algorithms are done in many fields.

Just for example, from Google logs, you can see what type of movies with which attributes, genre etc. people search for and want to see.

Its just a small example and there are already many models to predict the success of any movie. Google logs is used because it has one major attribute that generally every research group wants, a very large database.

Also, the data of this size is not available. There are companies who just sell these data.

 

[Developereo]

Sir jee, these research projects help in creating models for predicting the response of population, how to measure social temperature and their possible reaction for new policies, product, ideology etc. They also help in pattern recognition.

Its very important research and its application are often not thought by general people. The usage of these models and algorithms are done in many fields.

Just for example, from Google logs, you can see what type of movies with which attributes, genre etc. people search for and want to see.

Its just a small example and there are already many models to predict the success of any movie. Google logs is used because it has one major attribute that generally every research group wants, a very large database.

Also, the data of this size is not available. There are companies who just sell these data.

I am not disputing the value of analyzing web logs; of course there are entire industries built around data mining.

I was talking about this particular study comparing search queries "2013" with "2011" and extrapolating it all to ridiculous conclusions.