Country classifications

Every country the index scores, filed by band. The bands are cut at fixed scores, so they are not the same size.

Countries filed: 194
Bands: 4
Cuts at: 80 / 60 / 40
Median score: 58

How the 194 fall

Scores in five-point steps. The band a country lands in is decided by three fixed cuts — 80, 60, 40 — drawn here in saffron. Nothing is evenly spread.

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Strategic Partner20Friendly Nation63Neutral / Developing104Watchlist / Caution7

Strategic Partner

score ≥ 8020 countries · 10.3% of the table

Every member, in full, with the trade tier that sits behind the score.

All 20 in Strategic Partner, highest BFI first. Trade share is the country's percentage of India's total trade.
#	Country	BFI	Safety	Popularity	Trade share	Trade tier
1	United Arab Emirates	91	93	92	9.25%	Tier 1 Trade Partner
2	Oman	88	95	85	0.94%	Tier 3 Trade Partner
3	Vietnam	87	88	92	1.50%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
4	Bhutan	85	96	80	0.18%	Tier 3 Trade Partner
5	Sri Lanka	85	78	90	0.56%	Tier 3 Trade Partner
6	Malaysia	84	80	88	1.71%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
7	Mauritius	84	90	88	0.05%	Tier 3 Trade Partner
8	Singapore	83	97	90	3.00%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
9	Russia	83	65	80	4.32%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
10	Indonesia	82	78	90	2.14%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
11	South Africa	82	55	88	1.28%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
12	Japan	82	95	82	2.36%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
13	Thailand	82	75	92	1.83%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
14	Nepal	82	80	90	0.83%	Tier 3 Trade Partner
15	Seychelles	82	90	82	0.05%	Tier 3 Trade Partner
16	Israel	81	78	80	0.35%	Tier 3 Trade Partner
17	France	81	75	88	1.34%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
18	Saudi Arabia	81	82	85	3.62%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
19	United Kingdom	81	90	88	2.03%	Tier 2 Trade Partner
20	Tanzania	80	72	78	0.73%	Tier 3 Trade Partner

Score and trade do not track each other. Seychelles carries 0.05% of India's trade and still clears 82, while South Africa holds the band's lowest safety score at 55 and sits at 82 on the strength of the other six inputs.

Friendly Nation

score 60–7963 countries · 32.5% of the table

Too many for one table and too few for an index, so this band opens by its five-point steps. The bars are the step sizes — the band is not evenly spread across its twenty points.

75–7916 countriesSouth Korea, Armenia, Australia…

70–749 countriesBrazil, Rwanda, Bahrain…

65–6912 countriesFiji, Cambodia, Ghana…

60–6426 countriesBotswana, Angola, Guyana…

Neutral / Developing

score 40–59104 countries · 53.6% of the table

Over half of the table sits in here, which makes it an index, not a shortlist. Nobody reads a hundred cards in score order, so this band is filed alphabetically with a letter rail.

A5 countries

B11 countries

C10 countries

C–V continues · 78 more countries

This band is not a synonym for “small”. Norway, Romania, Ireland, Austria are all top-50 economies filed here — the cut is alignment and access, not size, so a G7 economy and a microstate can share a row of the index.

Watchlist / Caution

score < 407 countries · 3.6% of the table

Few enough that nothing needs summarising: every input that produced each score is printed. This is the band a traveller is most likely to be checking for a reason, and the one where a single number explains least.

All 7 Watchlist / Caution countries with their seven weighted inputs. Every bar is 0–100 and higher is better on all of them.
Country	BFI	UN voting	Sentiment	Popularity	Trade	Defence	Visa ease	Safety
Nicaragua	39	38	68	42	53	0	35	35
Niger	39	67	50	35	49	5	50	5
Chad	38	45	75	12	48	1	75	12
Haiti	38	50	58	15	49	0	100	5
Mali	34	40	55	28	54	8	45	5
Yemen	32	35	82	25	61	0	0	0
Pakistan	20	10	5	55	38	0	25	15

Pakistan at 20 is the floor of the whole table. Note also that visa ease is the one input on which this band can score well — Haiti reaches 100. A country can be easy to enter and still sit last on every other measure, which is exactly why the score is a composite.