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Top10Earth
Country guide· 33 min read

Australia rankings 2026: where Australia places in 273 global Top 10s

Australia is #1 in Countries generating the most coal electricity per person, #1 in 4 rankings and inside the top 10 of 67 rankings. Every position, value and source, regenerated as the data refreshes.

Australia appears in 273 of the 491 live country rankings on Top10Earth. This guide walks through every one of them: where Australia is number one, where it makes the top 10, where it sits further down the table, and what has moved since the previous snapshot. Its best position is #1 in Countries generating the most coal electricity per person, where it is measured at 4,535.85 kWh per person (Coal electricity generation) as of 2026-11-02. Australia holds the #1 spot in 4 rankings and finishes inside the top 10 in 67 rankings.

Where Australia is number one

Australia leads the world in 4 rankings. In each case the runner-up and the gap are shown so the lead can be judged, not just the position.

Top 10 finishes

Australia is inside the top 10 of 63 further rankings beyond the ones it leads. Each entry names the country directly above it, which is the position to beat at the next refresh.

The remaining 51 top-10 positions are in the full list at the end of this guide.

Australia by theme

The rankings are grouped by category below, so the economic picture, the health picture and the environmental picture can be read separately. Positions are out of the number of countries each source reports, which differs by ranking.

Environment and energy

In environment and energy, Australia holds 90 positions: #1 of 50 in Countries generating the most coal electricity per person (4,535.85 kWh per person), #5 of 50 in Countries losing the most forest to deforestation each year (447.46 thousand hectares per year), #5 of 50 in Countries with the fastest forest expansion (604.18 thousand hectares per year) and #5 of 50 in Countries with the highest CO2 emissions from flaring per person (0.61 tonnes per person). 86 more rankings are listed below.

Food and agriculture

In food and agriculture, Australia holds 50 positions: #1 of 50 in Countries with the most organic agricultural land (53.0k thousand hectares), #2 of 50 in Countries with the highest cotton yields (5.06 tonnes per hectare), #2 of 50 in Countries with the highest rice yields (11.91 tonnes per hectare) and #2 of 50 in Countries with the most arable land per person (1.16 hectares per person). 46 more rankings are listed below.

Finance and crypto

In finance and crypto, Australia holds 47 positions: #3 of 43 in Countries with the highest government procurement spending (18.92 % of GDP), #6 of 50 in Countries with the highest bank lending to the private sector as a share of GDP (133.79 % of GDP), #10 of 50 in Countries by personal remittances, paid (16.0k current US$ million) and #10 of 50 in Countries with the highest private-sector credit as a share of GDP (133.79 % of GDP). 43 more rankings are listed below.

World and society

In world and society, Australia holds 37 positions: #2 of 50 in Countries with the highest share of people using improved sanitation (100 %), #3 of 50 in Countries with the highest share of rural people with basic drinking water (100 %), #3 of 41 in Countries with the oldest liberal democracies (108 years) and #4 of 50 in Countries with the highest share of people using clean cooking fuels (100 % of population). 33 more rankings are listed below.

Health and wellbeing

In health and wellbeing, Australia holds 29 positions: #1 of 50 in Countries with the highest child overweight rates (26.4 %), #1 of 50 in Countries with the highest share of overweight children under 5 (26.4 % of children under 5 (modeled estimate)), #2 of 50 in Countries with the highest share of people using basic sanitation (100 % of population) and #4 of 50 in Countries with the most adults who drank alcohol in the last year (80.67 %). 25 more rankings are listed below.

Education and science

In education and science, Australia holds 9 positions: #10 of 50 in Countries with the highest share of students from abroad (31.63 %), #13 of 50 in Countries with the most students reaching minimum reading level (lower sec.) (78.81 %), #15 of 50 in Countries with the most scientific journal articles (54.59 thousand) and #18 of 50 in Countries with the most patent applications by residents (2.54 thousand). 5 more rankings are listed below.

Consumer tech

In consumer tech, Australia holds 7 positions: #19 of 50 in Countries with the highest share of people using the internet (96.13 %), #22 of 50 in Countries with the most internet users (share of population) (96.13 % of population), #24 of 50 in Countries with the most fixed telephone subscriptions (5,953 thousand subscriptions) and #26 of 50 in Countries with the most fixed broadband subscriptions (9.74 million subscriptions). 3 more rankings are listed below.

Travel

In travel, Australia holds 4 positions: #8 of 50 in Countries earning the most from tourism (26.23 US$ bn), #12 of 50 in Countries with the most airline departures (678.85 thousand), #17 of 50 in Countries with the most air passengers (68.96 million) and #23 of 50 in Countries with the most rail travel (0.01 million).

What changed at the latest refresh

Comparing each ranking's newest snapshot with the one before it, Australia moved in 245 rankings:

Since the first snapshot

Top10Earth keeps every snapshot it publishes. Where a ranking has been captured at least three times, the first recorded position can be compared with today's:

Where Australia ranks lowest

A guide that only listed wins would be misleading. Australia's lowest current positions are 50th of 50 in Countries where most people agree vaccines are safe (78 %), 50th of 50 in Countries with the highest bladder cancer death rate (1.78 deaths per 100,000 people) and 50th of 50 in Countries with the highest CO₂ emissions from cement (2.73 million tonnes). Whether a low position is good or bad depends on the metric: being near the bottom of an emissions or mortality ranking is the better place to be.

Every ranking that includes Australia

How to read these numbers

Each ranking measures one metric from one named source at one time, so a #3 in one table and a #3 in another are not directly comparable. Countries also report in different years: the capture date is when Top10Earth fetched the data, while the source's own year is stated on each ranking page under methodology. For a side-by-side with another country on the same measures, open any ranking and use the head-to-head links, or visit Australia's entity page for the live table and rank-history chart.

Top10Earth never estimates or edits a value. Each number is fetched from its source on a schedule, hashed, stored and ranked by software, then checked by a quality gate before it is published. If a refresh fails that gate the previous snapshot stays live and a person looks at why. Every past snapshot is kept, which is what makes the rank-history charts on each ranking page possible.

Questions people ask about Australia

What is Australia's best ranking on Top10Earth?

#1 in Countries generating the most coal electricity per person, with 4,535.85 kWh per person (Coal electricity generation) as of 2026-11-02.

How many rankings include Australia?

273 current country rankings out of 491 on the site, including 4 rankings where it is #1.

Is Australia in the top 10 of anything?

Yes: 67 rankings, including #1 in Countries generating the most coal electricity per person, #1 in Countries with the highest child overweight rates and #1 in Countries with the highest share of overweight children under 5.

Where do the numbers come from?

From Our World in Data and World Bank Open Data. Each ranking page names its source, metric definition and capture date.

When was this guide last updated?

The newest snapshot used here was captured on 2026-11-02. The guide is regenerated automatically as rankings refresh.

Live table and history →

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