`:The compromise is that the EU is not ranked. The article is about a list of countries, and the EU is not a country.  How much plainer would you like it? The sources, despite calling the lists in some cases ``countries`` explicitly say that non-countries are on the lists. How much plainer can you get? Your quaint objection seems only calculated to ensure America remains #1, even though by some measures it no longer has that rank. If no one made the measurement, your objection would stand. However, they do, and that is the point. And since the CIA chooses to measure the EU in its ``country`` list, your comment about ``EU zealots`` misses the mark.     `