In terms of social, economic and political variables, where does New Zealand stand when compared with other nations? No systematic, scholarly attempt has ever been made to answer this question. In order to provide a beginning, the author first surveys relevant cross-national studies and notes that a set of four major characteristics of nations seems useful: wealth or development; size; cultural/political orientation; settlement density. On these dimensions, New Zealand is wealthy, small, Western and thinly settled. The significance of each of these characteristics is discussed, and New Zealand's position relative to other nations is “mapped”. The small North European nations are found to be most similar, followed by the large Western countries. Both of these groups share with New Zealand relative wealth, Western culture and political regimes, and lack of a strong Roman Catholic/Latin complexion, but differ in terms of density or size, as well as types of interaction between societies.
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