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Countries, like individuals and corporations, have credit ratings. These ratings offer forward-looking opinions about risk — will a country be able to pay back its debts in full and on time?

Lenders pay close attention to nations’ credit scores. Indeed, some banks and investment organizations are prohibited from lending to countries with all but the best ratings. The creditworthiness of entire countries has become increasingly thorny as governments around the world face tough choices about how much money to borrow (or print) to secure their economies. For example, it is currently considered less risky to lend to McDonald’s than to Brazil.

Click here to see the credit rating definitions used by the agency Standard & Poor’s, as well as S&P’s rating of a range of countries, and the 50 states.