The UK is the best country in the world to do business in 2019 despite continued political turbulence and ongoing uncertainty around Brexit, according to Forbes’ 13th annual ranking of the Best Countries for Business, published yesterday afternoon, which measures countries that are most hospitable to capital investment. Despite the uncertainty surrounding its exit from the EU, the United Kingdom ranked first for the second straight year on the strength of its workforce, innovation and lack of red tape.
Forbes determined the Best Countries for Business by rating 161 nations on 15 different factors: property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, infrastructure, market size, political risk, quality of life, workforce, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape and investor protection. Each category was equally weighted.
Key highlights about the UK’s ranking as the Best Country for Business:
- This is the second consecutive year that the UK has topped the list.
- The UK was the only country to rank among the top 30 countries (out of 161 countries ranked) in each of the 15 metrics used to rate the countries.
- Regionally, Europe dominates the upper ranks with 11 countries in the top 20, although it is down from 12 countries last year, as Austria dropped four spots to 22nd.
- Sweden moves up two spots to second. It scored highly for its technological readiness and low corruption.
- Rounding out the top five are Hong Kong, Netherlands and New Zealand.
- The U.S. fell five spots this year to 17th – the world’s biggest economy lost ground on personal, trade and monetary freedoms.
- African nations populate the worst countries for business with seven of the bottom 10 (Haiti is the weakest among non-African countries). These countries typically fare poorly on innovation, trade freedom and investor protection. The Central African Republic ranks last.
Here are the top 10 best countries for business:
| Rank | Country | GDP Growth | GDP per Capita | Trade Balance/GDP | Population |
| 1 | UK | 1.7% | $39,700 | -3.8% | 65.1m |
| 2 | Sweden | 2.1% | $53,400 | 3.3% | 10.0m |
| 3 | Hong Kong | 3.8% | $46,200 | 4.3% | 7.2m |
| 4 | Netherlands | 2.9% | $48,200 | 10.5% | 17.2m |
| 5 | New Zealand | 3% | $42,900 | -2.7% | 4.5m |
| 6 | Canada | 3% | $45,000 | -2.9% | 35.9m |
| 7 | Denmark | 2.3% | $56,300 | 7.6% | 5.8m |
| 8 | Singapore | 3.6% | $57,700 | 18.8% | 6.0m |
| 10 | Australia | 2.2% | $53,800 | -2.6% | 23.5m |
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