U.S. News & World Report released its rankings for the best countries to invest in this year.

Those rankings were determined by 7,000 worldwide business decision makers who scored each country on eight attributes, including entrepreneurship, economic stability, and favorable tax environment.

The list differs greatly from last year's; three of this year's top five countries were not even ranked last year.

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To qualify as a country worthy of investment, certain standards must be met.

A World Bank Group report in 2011 highlighted four factors — the country's people, environment, relationships, and framework — that propel both individuals and corporations to invest in a given country's natural resources, markets, technologies, or brands.

Guided by this report, U.S. News & World Report identified the best countries to invest in for 2019.

To determine the overall list, U.S. News & World Report surveyed over 21,000 people worldwide about 80 different countries, measuring them on 65 different attributes, including cultural influence, entrepreneurship, and quality of life.

Read more: The 20 best countries around the world to live as an expat, ranked

U.S. News focused on just eight of the 65 attributes: entrepreneurship, economic stability, favorable tax environment, innovation, skilled labor, technological expertise, dynamism, and corruption. Responses from over 7,000 survey participants — who act as decision makers in business around the globe — were then used to determine the ranking.

The most recent survey produced a completely different ranking last year; in 2018, the top five countries for investment were the Philippines, Indonesia, Poland, Malaysia, and Singapore. See below for this year's rankings, with the country's population and GDP (from U.S. News & World Report) and the GDP growth percentage in 2018 (from The World Bank).