Gross domestic product (GDP) alone does not allow a judgement on how competitive an economy really is. The private business school IMD in Lausanne says it has been compiling a competitiveness ranking for 36 years. For this purpose, 67 economies worldwide were analyzed in 2024.
According to IMD, two-thirds of the result of the “World Competitiveness Rankings” (WCR) is based on statistical data. This year, there were 164 criteria. In addition, the competitiveness of countries was determined based on the assessments of 6,612 experts. They were surveyed on 92 criteria from February to May 2024.
How competitiveness is measured
All questions and data fell into four main categories:
- Economic performance (e.g. national economy, international trade, employment, international investment, price level)
- Government efficiency (tax policy, public finances, welfare state)
- Economic efficiency (productivity, values, labor market)
- Infrastructure (also: education, health, environment, research).
According to the ranking, these are the most competitive countries in the world.
Source: Stern
