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."

Future Orientation Index 2012

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.

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