The Vatican is ranked as the most stable and prosperous of 235 nations under study for a year by Jane's Information Services, followed by Sweden, Luxembourg, Monaco and Gibraltar to round out the top five, according to the U.K.'s TimesOnline.

The next five are San Marino, Liechtenstein, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the Irish Republic, the Times reported.

Failing to make the Top 10 -- or even the Top 20 -- was the United States, which, thanks to ties in the ratings, finished at No. 22, according to the survey.

Even Switzerland, "normally associated with wealth and untouchable stability, is rated 17th, losing points in the assessment of its social achievements," the Times said.

The rating system took into account each nation's political structures, social and economic trends, military and security risks and external relations, according to the Times report. 

Christian Le Miere, managing editor of Janes' Country Risk, which compiled the ratings that were released today, told the Times that the United States fell down the scale (though still scoring an average 93 out of a possible 100) because of the proliferation of small arms owned by Americans and the threat posed by the flow of drugs across the Mexican border.

That drew a surprised reaction from Justin Webb, the BBC's North America editor, who wrote this morning on his blog "Justin Webb's America" that "one of the great pleasures of living in the US is that the underlying sense of low-level violence and nastiness so much in evidence in big English cities -- and in small market towns as well -- just does not exist here" or at least outside certain areas in the United States.

"Most Americans can avoid it. In the UK, you cannot," wrote Webb, who asked, "Have the Jane's people got it wrong?"

One of the surprises in the survey, as noted by the Times, was that the list's Bottom 10 did not include Iraq.

Worst place first, the least prosperous and stable nations on earth include Gaza and the West Bank, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, the Times reported.

Le Miere told the Times that the reason Iraq escaped the bottom was that despite "extremely high levels of violence" it had a "relatively stable government" that controlled a significant area of the country and had good economic prospects.

That finding brought favorable notice this morning from the conservative Washington Times. 

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