# National Capability Benchmark | Envisioning

Source: https://www.envisioning.com/capability/national

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[The program](/capability)[Countries](/capability/national)[Organizations](/capability/organizations)[Forecasts](/hindsight)
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# National Capability Benchmark

A country’s wealth and its capability are different things. Most international indices measure income, competitiveness or governance and end up measuring much the same thing. This benchmark tests whether a country’s ability to anticipate, act, coordinate, learn, experiment, adapt, build and hold a shared purpose is separate and observable.

[Open the benchmark](https://ncb.envisioning.com/countries)[Method and data](https://ncb.envisioning.com/method)

What it measures

[53 countries](https://ncb.envisioning.com/countries), 9 dimensions, each scored 0 to 100, equal weights. There is no composite score and no headline ranking. A single number answers “who is ahead”; this asks “what can this country do?”, which has nine answers. Two countries with the same average can have opposite shapes.

Every [indicator](https://ncb.envisioning.com/indicators) stays visible with its [source](https://ncb.envisioning.com/sources) and year. Confidence is published beside the score and never folded into it. Missing values are dropped, nothing is imputed, and a dimension with too few observed indicators publishes no score rather than a guess. Indicators come from World Bank, Joint EVS/WVS, V-Dem and similar series with a public methodology.

Brazil is the first field case. The same dimensions, indicators, transforms and normalization apply to every country in the set; the field case gets no special treatment in the model.

Nine dimensions

1.  01
    
    ### Anticipation
    
    Can the country see change coming and prepare for it?
    
2.  02
    
    ### Agency
    
    Can it act on what it decides?
    
3.  03
    
    ### Coordination
    
    Can its institutions align around a response?
    
4.  04
    
    ### Trust
    
    Do people and institutions trust each other enough to cooperate?
    
5.  05
    
    ### Learning
    
    Does evidence change policy and practice?
    
6.  06
    
    ### Experimentation
    
    Can it try things before it is certain?
    
7.  07
    
    ### Adaptability
    
    Can it change course when conditions change?
    
8.  08
    
    ### Building
    
    Can it build the capacity it needs?
    
9.  09
    
    ### Shared purpose
    
    Can it hold a long-term priority across political cycles?
    

What would disprove it

If the claim is right, countries at the same income level have different shapes, and a dimension can improve without the country first getting richer. If it is wrong, the nine dimensions collapse into one factor that tracks GDP per head. Every release runs that test, along with correlation and redundancy checks between dimensions.

Where it lives

The benchmark is published at [ncb.envisioning.com](https://ncb.envisioning.com): every [country profile](https://ncb.envisioning.com/countries), a [comparison view](https://ncb.envisioning.com/compare), the [method](https://ncb.envisioning.com/method), the indicator registry and sources, and a [dispute form](https://ncb.envisioning.com/objections) for anyone who thinks a score is wrong. For the data behind a country, or to add one, [write to us](/contact?context=general).