Methodology

The 2021 GHS Index includes research for the same 195 countries included in the inaugural edition (2019). Country research was conducted from August 2020 through June 2021. Economist Impact conducted the research for this Index through a combination of qualitative assessments of publicly available country information and examinations of existing quantitative data sets. Given the complex nature of global health security, Economist Impact developed a multidimensional analytical framework, commonly known as a benchmarking index, in order to create an objective, country-level assessment tool. A multidimensional framework is a useful way of measuring performance that cannot be directly observed, such as a country’s economic competitiveness or, in this case, a country’s health security conditions.

What is the best way to use the GHS Index Model?

• The indicators in the 2021 Global Health Security Index are embedded in an interactive model (available as an Excel workbook at the top of this page) that offers a wide range of analytical tools, thereby allowing a deeper investigation into measures of global health security. For example, users can filter countries by region, population, or income level, or directly compare any two countries. The model also includes data from the 2019 Global Health Security Index, allowing users to view country performance for both GHS Index years (note: data for 2019 have been re-scored to accommodate changes made to the GHS Index in 2021). A user can also examine correlations between indicators. Individual country profiles, which include the consulted sources and scoring justifications, are also included in the 2021 Global Health Security Index model, thus permitting a deeper dive into the health security conditions in each country.
• The GHS Index model is designed to allow the users flexibility in how they analyze the data. Although the GHS Index model relies on a neutral weighting scheme for analysis, the weights assigned to each indicator can be changed by the user to reflect different assumptions about the importance of categories and indicators.
• Finally, the model allows the final scores to be benchmarked against external factors that may potentially influence global health security, such as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Index, and many other relevant factors. The background indicators also include two COVID-19-specific metrics collected by the Economist Impact team: assessing if the country has made publicly available de-identified COVID-19 health surveillance data and contact tracing data.

What are the changes to the 2021 GHS Index?

The 2021 GHS Index includes several indicators that have been revised or added into the framework. This GHS Index includes a total of 171 individual metrics (or questions), compared with 140 in 2019. The 2021 GHS Index includes new and revised questions on zoonotic disease spillover events, scaling testing capabilities for known and novel pathogens, financing, risk communications and misinformation, disinformation and rumors, among others. For a full overview of the new and revised questions,  see the section “Select New and Revised Indicators” on page 25 of the Methodology Report.

What are the scoring criteria and categories?

The 2021 Global Health Security Index consists of 171 questions grouped into 37 indicators across six overarching categories. The Index includes research for 195 countries that compose the States Parties to the International Health Regulations (IHR [2005]).

The overall score (0–100) for each country is a weighted sum of the six categories. Each category is scored on a scale of 0 to 100, in which 100 represents the most favorable health security conditions and 0 represents the least favorable conditions. A score of 100 does not indicate that a country has perfect national health security conditions; likewise, a score of 0 does not mean that a country has no capacity. Instead, the scores of 100 and 0 represent the highest or lowest possible score, respectively, as measured by the Global Health Security Index criteria. Each category is normalized based on the sums of its underlying indicators and sub-indicators, and an identical weight is then applied. The default weights used in the ranking are based on neutral (or identical) weights. The weights in the model, however, are dynamic and can be changed by users.