The rate at which business numbers increase is a clear sign of economic confidence, reflecting governments’ support for enterprise-friendly policies, infrastructure improvement projects and an “open for business” approach to taxation and investment. Economies where entrepreneurship abounds and where businesses are given the right conditions to succeed are more likely to grow faster, and are putting themselves in a better position to compete on the global stage.
At this stage in the economic cycle, understanding which countries are seeing business numbers accelerate fastest and identifying any global trends, for instance between developed or emerging economies, should provide useful insight. Not only is this indicative of individual countries’ underlying economic strength, it could also point to likely future shifts in global economic power.
To find out which countries are pulling ahead and which are lagging, we conducted research across 21 countries around the world, studying the number of businesses existing in 2016 in comparison with the previous year. This allows us to build an accurate picture of the real state of enterprise creation and helps assess the strength of entrepreneurial drive in different countries.
Our aim is to quantify the size of the gap between developed and emerging economies, gauge whether it is widening, and analyse why some countries are outperforming others. Below we outline our key findings and analysis of the trends.
