10 Best Countries for Entrepreneurs in the World

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has ranked the ten best countries for entrepreneurs. The OECD’s mission is to “is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.” The purpose of this type of list is to identify and celebrate the countries that are encouraging to entrepreneurs. One way to aid economic recovery is to help the middle class thrive and rebuilding small business will help drive this growth. Basically, the lower the country’s barrier to entrepreneurship index score in the list beneath, the better it is for entrepreneurs and business.

• 10. Ireland, barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.16: the country is home to world famous beer brand Guinness, which was first exported from Ireland in 1769. It is also where businessman and CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary took the small Dublin airline from obscurity to a major player without moving from the country’s capital.
• 8. Australia (tie), barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.15: Important to the OECD was the ability to start up a company. Australian success stories include Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. which he founded in Adelaide in 01979 (they have since moved headquarters to New York City). Also, BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company was founded in Melbourne in 1885.
• 8. Denmark (tie), barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.15: The beer maker Carlsberg is one of the larger companies that started and continues to base its headquarters out of Denmark. JYSK, was established in Denmark in 1979, and today is one of the leading and fastest-growing retailers in the world, doing business in 34 countries. Let’s not forget high-end audio manufacturer Bang & Olufsen.
• 6. South Korea (tie), barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.14: Corporations like Daewoo, Hyundai, Jeju Air, Kia and LG all began their operations in South Korea and continue to have the bulk of their operations there. South Korea is the only Asian country to make this top 10 list, and boasts a better barrier to entrepreneurship index than the survey’s median score.
• 6. Canada (tie), barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.14: besides the United States, one would be hard pressed to find another country that has born more large businesses. Of course there are the major brands like Tim Hortons and BlackBerry, but also Barrick Gold, the worlds largest gold mining company and social media photo sharing giant Flickr. Oh and of course Miratel Solutions 🙂
• 4. Slovenia (tie), barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.11: When looking at their major businesses you won’t necessarily see any recognizable names. Slovenia has made the list because of the economic turnaround they had after a disastrous setbacks like their GDP dropping 8.1 per cent in 2009 and a 7.3 per cent unemployment rate in 2010, they are back in the black and doing well.
• 4. Italy (tie), barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.11: they are home to high-end, thriving brands like Ferrari, Armani, Lamborghini, Vespa and Fendi. Luxottica, the worlds largest eyewear company that manufactures brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley and Prada and sells them to retailers like Sunglass Hut and LensCrafters, also calls Italy home.
• 3. Sweden, barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.07: though they are home to major brands like Electrolux, Ericsson and Volvo, the biggest success story of the country has to be Ikea. Ikea was founded in 1943 and is now a multi-national corporation and one of the world’s largest private companies.
• 2. Netherlands, barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.04: This is currently the headquarters of Swedish brand Ikea. Other companies are now calling the Netherlands home like electronics giant Phillips and Unilever, the parent company of brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Hellmann’s and Lipton.
• 1. United Kingdom, barrier to entrepreneurship index: 1.01: Though they are the headquarters to large corporations like BP, British Airways and HSBC the most notable would be billionaire Sir. Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.

There you have it – something for budding entrepreneurs to think about. The smartest country in the world, is also the 5th happiest AND the 6th best for Entrepreneurs. We may have to change a line in the anthem because we are the True North strong and free and smart and happy and enterprising 🙂

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values and advancing the missions of the non-profits we proudly serve.