What country would Georgians pick if they could choose where to be born?

Countries in red and yellow are the ones where respondents of the survey would like to be born. The first 11 countries in ranking are in red, rest in yellow. Countries in light gray were not mentioned at all.
Agenda.ge, 13 Apr 2017 - 12:27, Tbilisi,Georgia

A Tbilisi-based think-tank has recently revealed the results of an online survey that asked Georgian citizens what country they would pick if they could choose where to be born.

Here are the top 11 choices:

  1. Georgia
  2. United States of America
  3. Italy
  4. United Kingdom
  5. Germany
  6. Switzerland
  7. Norway
  8. Sweden
  9. France
  10. Netherlands
  11. Spain

The survey was conducted by the ISET Policy Institute – one of the first university-based think-tanks in the South Caucasus based at the International School of Economics (ISET) of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) in Georgia.

The survey was conducted using a questionnaire written in Georgian, through Facebook, in March of 2017. The sample is not representative of the whole country because of the chosen channel, but the answers provided are nevertheless quite interesting.

Below are some of the other key findings of the survey.

In total, respondents named 39 countries, of which only 12 were in Asia or South and Central America. All of the rest of the countries mentioned were in Western Europe, with the exception of the USA.

Only one respondent reported that he would like to be born in Russia.

Apart from a common preference for Georgia and the USA (at the top of the ranking), males and females seem to have quite different preferences: Italy ranks third for Georgian females, while it is ninth for males; France, Spain and Canada appear in females’ rankings, but not for males, while the Netherlands, New Zealand and Iceland appear in males’ rankings, but not in females’ preferences.

The survey was filled mainly by young individuals (with an average age of 29 years), of which more than 70 percent were female. A total of 501 individuals responded.