Courtesy of Investment Frontier, a list of the safest frontier markets to invest in:

Our rankings rely on three main sources of rankings: the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Rankings, Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, and the Fund For Peace’s Fragile States Index.

Our previous rankings relied on the 2015 rankings from all three sources, but the Fragile States Index (FSI) is now on its 2016 iteration and the World Bank released the 2017 Ease of Doing Business rankings last week.

Unfortunately, Transparency International has yet to release the 2016 version of their index, but given the new data points it was worth redoing our rankings.

The Biggest Improvements

Seven countries jumped by over 20 spots in our rankings:

1. Uzbekistan: +30 spots, from 160 to 130
2. Bhutan: +25 spots, from 89 to 64
3. Brunei: +24 spots, from 83 to 59
4. Serbia: +23 spots, from 85 to 62
5. Kazakhstan: +23 spots, from 95 to 72
6. San Marino: +21 spots, from 101 to 80
7. Tajikistan: +20 spots, from 161 to 141

In fact, Central Asia was the big winner here with Kyrgyzstan also up 16 spots, although they are all ranked in the 100s so there is a long way to go.

The Biggest Drops

Seven countries dropped by 15 or more spots:

1. Bahamas: -45 spots, from 37 to 82
2. Palau: -27 spots, from 125 to 152
3. Cape Verde: -25 spots, from 62 to 87
4. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: -23 spots, from 112 to 135
5. Tonga: -23 spots, from 71 to 94
6. Kiribati: -18 spots, from 149 to 167
7. Yemen: -15 spots, from 172 to 187

Island nations did poorly overall as the Ease of Doing Business rankings docked them heavily this turn around.

What Are The Safest Frontier Market Countries To Invest In?

The top 10 frontier market countries that are the safest to invest in are:

1. Estonia (#20)
2. Lithuania (#28)
3. Slovenia (#29)
4. Latvia (#30)
5. Chile (#33)
6. Mauritius (#35)
7. Cyprus (#39)
8. Malta (#40)
9. Qatar (#43)
10. Macedonia (#46)

Unsurprisingly, European frontier markets dominate the list of safest countries. Botswana is the safest African market to invest in, coming in at #48.

What Are The Most Dangerous Frontier Market Countries To Invest In?

The 10 frontier market countries that are the most dangerous to invest in are:

1. Somalia (#192, out of 192)
2. South Sudan (#191)
3. Afghanistan (#190)
4. Haiti (#189)
5. Sudan (#188)
6. Yemen (#187)
7. Central African Republic (#186)
8. Eritrea (#185)
9. Democratic Republic of Congo (#184)
10. Syria (#183)

For the record, North Korea, which does not even have a Ease of Doing Business ranking, came in at #176.