Canada is the second-best country in the world, according to the results of a new survey unveiled at the World Economic Forum Wednesday.

Canada ranked second-best country in the world

Find Your Forecast Search for a location

Cheryl Santa Maria

Digital Reporter

Wednesday, January 20, 2016, 5:09 PM - In news that will not come as a surprise to anyone living in the Great White North, a new survey listed Canada is the second-best country in the world on Wednesday, sitting behind one European country.

Germany took the top spot, while the United Kingdom came in third. The United States took the fourth spot.

The survey was prepared by U.S. News and World Report, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and BAV consulting.

More than 16,200 leaders in business and notable members of the public were surveyed ahead of the World Economic Forum, which kicked off Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.

Canada earned its high ranking for a number of factors.

Celebrating diversity, being culturally influential and having an overall good quality of life are three of them.

Canada also scored high for its stunning wilderness, earning high points for being scenic (we have photographic evidence below) and having a pleasant climate (we're not sure every Canadian would agree with that).

A quick search of The Weather Network's photo gallery yielded these spectacular results:





Lake Moraine, Alberta. Submitted to theweathernetwork.com by Betty Wong





Whitehorse, Yukon. Submitted to theweathernetwork.com by Peter Toth.





Pleasant Bay, Nova Scotia. Submitted to theweathernetwork.com by Mark Ferriss.





The survey ranked 60 countries across 24 rankings. Visit US News for an in-depth look at the results.

Source: U.S. News