I distance application in the ranking of Group 8 and European Union countries by level of development

Abstract According to the analyses published by the international organizations, the most developed countries are those from Group 8. The group of highly developed countries is in matter, which consists of: Japan, USA, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, France and Canada. The goal of the work is to determine the ranking list of the selected countries according to the level of development in 2021 based on a certain number of macroeconomic factors. For the purposes of realizing the formulated goal, the I distance method was applied. A decision for the I distance method comes from the fact that this model satisfies all the conditions characteristic for the nature of distance, that is, for the multidimensional phenomenon of development. Based on the ranking list of Group 8 countries, the United States of America is in the first place, followed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, the Russian Federation and Japan. Speaking about the EU countries, the Netherlands has the highest level of development according to the selected indicators, followed by Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Luxembourg etc. The coming future will probably bring changes when it comes to the ranking on the ranking list. Changes can be expected due to the war events, demographic trends, technological achievements, and generally the replacement of the leading positions when it comes to resources. Namely, it is certain that the countries that adapt faster to other energy sources as well as to more economical use of the existing ones, will have a leading role on a global scale.