Germany wins the world popularity contest.

In the BBC’s annual survey to rank which of 17 candidates – that’s 16 countries and the EU – is the most popular, Germany was the big winner.

Canada came in second and the UK took third place.

The process involved 26 thousand participants, each of whom were asked either in person or by phone if their views of each of the 17 options was “mostly positive” or “mostly negative”.

No countries’ residents were allowed to weigh in on their own.

Canada fostered the least negative feelings while Iran elicited the most.

The US and China both had scores that landed them in the middle of the pack, taking the 8th and 9th spots, respectively. Both countries were also viewed less favorably than they had been a year before.

Nonetheless, the US and China rank high when it comes to tourism, being the 2nd and 3rd most visited countries in the world.

France is number one in tourism and number 5 on the BBC popularity poll.

Germany and the UK made the bottom half of the top ten international visitor destinations, but Canada didn’t make the cut.