Fragile States Index

The Fragile States Index (FSI; formerly the Failed States Index) is an annual report published by the United States think tank, the Fund for Peace and the magazine Foreign Policy since 2005. The list aims to assess states' vulnerability to conflict or collapse, ranking all sovereign states with membership in the United Nations where there is enough data available for analysis.Taiwan, the Palestinian Territories, Northern Cyprus, Kosovo and Western Sahara are not ranked, despite being recognized as sovereign by one or more other nations. Ranking is based on the sum of scores for 12 indicators (see below). Each indicator is scored on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the lowest intensity (most stable) and 10 being the highest intensity (least stable), creating a scale spanning 0−120.

The index's ranks are based on twelve indicators of state vulnerability, grouped by category: social (4), economic (2), and political (6).

Scores are obtained via a process involving content analysis, quantitative data, and qualitative review. In the content analysis phase, millions of documents from over 100,000 English-language or translated sources (social media are excluded) are scanned and filtered through the Fund for Peace's Conflict Assessment Systems Tool (CAST), which utilizes specific filters and search parameters to sort data based on boolean phrases linked to indicators, and assigns scores based on algorithms. Following CAST analysis, quantitative data from sources such as the UN, WHO, World Factbook, Transparency International, World Bank, and Freedom House are incorporated, which then leads to the final phase of qualitative review of each indicator for each country.

Considered together in the Index, the indicators are a way of assessing a state's vulnerability to collapse or conflict, ranking states on a spectrum of categories labeled 'sustainable,' 'stable,' 'warning,' and 'alert.' Within each bracket, scores are also subdivided by severity. The score breakdown is as follows:

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