Economic performance, government efficiency, Business efficiency, infrastructure. For 35 years the IMD World Competitiveness centre has measured countries throughout the world on these and several other factors. Taken together, the analysis describes how competitive the countries are. In 2023 Denmark places as number one out of 64… For the second year running.

Consistently competitive

IMD World Competitiveness Centre is a branch of the Swiss business academy IMD. They benchmark, analyse and rank countries according to how they manage their competencies to achieve long-term value creation. Denmark has been in the top ten since 2019 and in Copenhagen Science City, this stability is seen as one of many reasons for innovation intensive companies to locate in the innovation district.

Companies that are based on new inventions and discoveries take a long time to mature. They need a stable economy to do that in. The fact that Copenhagen Science City is located in a consistently competitive country makes it a very good place to locate deep-tech companies”: Kristoffer Klebak, Head of secretariat, Copenhagen Science City.

Prosperity for people is key determiner of success

The World Competitiveness Centre carries out its annual World Competitiveness Ranking because they see a country’s ability to generate prosperity for its people as a key determiner of success. Only governments can provide efficient infrastructures and institutions as well as policies that encourage value creation by businesses.

European top three

Denmark remains first in business efficiency and second in infrastructure while it shows slightly improved results in government efficiency, albeit from a very high point. The 2023 top-three is rounded out by Ireland and Switzerland. Just outside the top-three are Singapore and the Netherlands.

More than GDP

The IMD ranking is evidence, that an economy’s competitiveness cannot be reduced only to GDP and productivity. Among the subcategories, that landed Denmark its spot at the top are such things as direct investment flow inward as percentage of GDP, real growth and investments in telecommunications.