Forbes has examined the world's biggest economies for the past 12 years to gauge which ones are the most inviting for capital investment. Europe continues to dominate the upper ranks of our Best Countries for Business with 12 of the top 20 spots, including the United Kingdom which ranks first for the first time on the heels of its vote to leave the European Union in 2019. These European nations score well almost across the board on trade freedom, innovation, infrastructure and low levels of corruption.
We enlisted mapping solutions firm ESRI to plot the best and worst countries for business on an interactive map. The top 25 and bottom 10 are below along with economic data from 2016 accessible by clicking on an individual country or perusing the slideshow.
We determined the Best Countries for Business by rating 153 nations on 15 different factors including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape and investor protection.
We tweaked our methodology this year for the first time in a decade to provide a better gauge of how attractive a country is for capital investment. Stock market performance is out and we added workforce, infrastructure, market size, quality of life and political risk. Each category was equally weighted. (click here for more details on the methodology and the best and worst country on each metric).
The Asia-Pacific landed six countries in the top 20 led by New Zealand, which ranks second for the third straight year. Canada (No. 5) and the U.S. (No. 12) round out the top 20. The U.S. moves up from twenty-third last year for its improved standing on technological readiness, innovation and trade freedom, as well as the additions of workforce and market size as metrics to Forbes' methodology.
African nations populate the majority of the bottom 10 countries as they struggle with innovation, trade freedom and investor protection. Chad ranks last for the third straight year.
More: The U.K. Tops Forbes' Best Countries For Business 2018
