26 Least Politically Stable Countries (2009-2010)

Personally I'd say their methodology is very flawed. It's interesting looking back at this data from 3 years ago, just before the Arab Spring, and yet none of the countries involved make the list. Actually Oman was ranked 17th *most* stable, and while the dictatorship there survived where some others did not, their rating of 3.9 seems much lower than it ought to be. The UK is 4.6 and Oman is 3.9? Something wrong with that picture. They give the USA a 5.3 ("moderate" risk), while Tunisia scored 4.6, Libya 4.3, Egypt 5.4, Syria 5.8, and Bahrain 5.5- just flat-out absurd. Nobody in the USA is taking to the streets except some disgruntled hippies whose biggest impact is to overwhelm the plumbing of the nearest Starbucks bathroom, meanwhile those other countries which scored about the same or lower have undergone revolutions or civil wars or are in the midst of ongoing violent protests. Saudi Arabia scored worse than all of those countries- 6.1. I live there. It's very stable.