The World's Most Competitive Economies

This year’s World Competitiveness Ranking, published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) evaluates 67 economies based on more than 250 indicators across four broad categories: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. The indicators are a mix of hard statistical data, which accounts for two thirds of the final ranking, and the perceptions of more than 6,000 executives, which account for the remaining third of the results.

As the following chart shows, the ranking covers large parts of Europe as well as North America, while leaving some blind spots in Latin America, Asia and, most notably, Africa with just four African economies evaluated this year. As in previous years, Europe dominates the competitiveness ranking with six European economies in the top 10, including three in the top 5.

While Asia also has three economies in the top 10, its largest economies China, India, Japan and South Korea are notably absent. Instead it’s Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong who reach the highest scores in the region, with the former of the three topping this year's ranking.