Arctic Countries Demonstrate Strong Competitive Capacity, According to Recent Ranking

The annual international ranking of economic competitive competitiveness is worked out by the Swiss business academy Institute for Management Development (IMD).

Out of the 63 countries in this year’s ranking, the seven western Arctic states perform well, with all finishing in the top 20.

For the first time ever, Denmark is on top of the list, up two places from last year. Sweden is fourth (down two from last year), Finland is in eight place (up three places), Norway is ninth (down three places), the USA is in 10^th place, Canada in 14^th place, and Iceland in 16^th place (up five). Russia was not assessed due to insufficient amounts of reliable data.

“Denmark has played extremely aggressively on the sustainability front and benefits from being a small country in the European market. Operating within that framework has allowed it to announce aggressive reductions”, Professor Arturo Bris, Director of IMD World Competitiveness Center, says in a press statement.

Bris refers to Denmark’s intending to cut 70 percent of climate gas emissions by 2030.

Since last year’s ranking, the country has a.o. strengthened its position when it comes to international investments and public sector efficiency.

IMD measures competitive power through using 33 criteria and is based on international comparable statistics on unemployment, GDP, and public budgets, as well as surveys.

The ranking is divided into four main categories: economic results, public sector efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. The 63 countries included in the ranking are selected based on the availability of comparable data.

This article was originally published in Norwegian and has been translated by Elisabeth Bergquist.