The Fund for Peace, an independent research organization, and Foreign Policy Magazine have published the third annual Failed States Index. Using 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators, 177 states have been ranked in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal deterioration. The index scores are based on data from more than 12,000 publicly available sources collected from May to December 2006. The 60 most vulnerable states are listed in the rankings. For the second year in a row, Sudan tops the rankings as the state most at risk of failure. Eight of the world’s 10 most vulnerable states are in sub-Saharan Africa, up from six last year and seven in 2005. Two vulnerable giants, China and Russia, improved their scores sufficiently to move out of the 60 worst states.