GTCI 2018 ranking: top 40 of 119 countries and scores

The 2018 edition is the fifth in the series and the one built around diversity¹. At the top it kept the order of 2017’s first two: Switzerland first, Singapore second, with the United States moving up to third^2,1. Underneath, the table moved more. Norway climbed from 10th to 4th, the United Kingdom fell from 3rd to 8th, and almost every top-25 score was higher than a year earlier, a jump that says as much about the model as about the countries^2,1. Below are the table, the shifts against 2017, the top 15 country by country, the pillar leaders the report names, the regional and income picture and the diversity theme.

The 2018 ranking: top 40 of 119

The ranking comes from Table 1 of the GTCI 2018 report, which scores each country and gives its income group and region¹. Forty rows are reproduced below with the printed scores¹. Coverage is 119 countries, up from 118, representing almost 98% of the world’s GDP and 89% of its population¹.

European countries hold 16 of the top 25 places, as in the year before¹. Singapore (2nd) and the United States (3rd) are the two non-European countries in the top 10¹. Seven more non-European countries reach the top 25: Australia (11th), New Zealand (12th), Canada (15th), the United Arab Emirates (17th), Japan (20th), Qatar (23rd) and Israel (24th)¹. Malaysia, 27th, is the only upper-middle-income country in the top 30¹. Slovenia (28th), Portugal (29th) and South Korea (30th) complete the top quartile¹. Chile is 33rd, Costa Rica 35th and Bahrain 38th¹.

Worked example (our arithmetic). Six score gaps, each one a subtraction of two table scores¹.

The two bottom rows have the opposite shape from the 2019 ranking, where first place was far ahead and second and third nearly level. In 2018 the first two are close, and third place is 3.08 points behind second¹.

Scores rose, ranks held: 2017 against 2018

The top 25 of 2018 is virtually unchanged from the previous edition¹. Since few methodological changes were made, the changes in ranking from the year before can be considered reliable, particularly in the first quartile¹. Germany slipped a few positions outside the top 15 while Iceland made it in¹.

Worked example (our arithmetic). Each change subtracts the 2018 rank from the 2017 rank, read from Table 1 of the GTCI 2017 report and of the 2018 report^2,1. A positive change is a climb. The 2019 column, from the GTCI 2019 report, is context only³.

Of the 25 countries, 11 rose, 9 fell and 5 kept the same rank between 2017 and 2018^2,1. Norway made the biggest climb, six places from 10th to 4th, followed by Finland (9th to 6th) and France (24th to 21st) with three each^2,1. The United Kingdom (3rd to 8th) and Australia (6th to 11th) fell five places each, and Luxembourg fell three (7th to 10th)^2,1.

The scores tell a different story from the ranks. Scores rose for 24 of the 25 countries, and Czechia is the only one that fell, from 60.17 to 60.02^2,1. Switzerland went from 74.55 to 79.90 and Singapore from 74.09 to 78.42^2,1. A rise of that size across almost the whole table cannot be 24 countries improving at once. The model grew from 65 to 68 variables, so part of the move is the yardstick¹. Ranks are the safer bridge between 2017 and 2018, and even they should be read with the first-quartile caveat the report gives¹.

The top 15, country by country

The group of countries in the top 15 is quite stable, although they sometimes switch positions¹. Switzerland and its neighbours at the top perform strongly in each of the six pillars, and a few countries just outside the group lead single pillars: Germany (19th) is one of the leaders in Vocational and Technical Skills, Austria (18th) ranks highly there too, the United Arab Emirates (19th) and Qatar (21st) are strong magnets of talent on Attract, and Estonia (22nd) and Israel (24th) are top performers in Global Knowledge Skills¹.

Switzerland is at the top by virtue of strong performance across all six pillars, with Enable 2nd, Retain 1st and Vocational and Technical Skills 3rd, and it never drops out of the top 10 in any pillar¹. Its Internal Openness sub-pillar (13th) combines good social mobility (2nd) with lagging gender equality variables: Female graduates (86th) and Leadership opportunities for women (21st)¹. Singapore is top across Enable and Attract, with only Tolerance of immigrants showing a relatively poorer result¹. The United States leads on Grow thanks to Formal Education (2nd) and an unrivalled Access to Growth Opportunities (1st)¹.

Several profiles turn on the same gap between openness at home and openness abroad. Sweden is 2nd on Internal Openness and 22nd on External Openness, and Finland is 3rd on Internal and 35th on External¹. The United Kingdom has good External Openness (6th) but Internal Openness (18th) has room to improve, and the report adds that it remains to be determined whether Brexit alters its performance¹. Luxembourg’s second place on Attract rests on External Openness (3rd) and Internal Openness (6th), while its Formal Education (51st) lags¹. Canada is the second most tolerant country of immigrants in the world, and Iceland ranks 19th on Attract¹.

Pillar leaders named in the 2018 report

The 2018 annex does not print a top-three table for each pillar as the later reports do, so the leaders below are the ones its text names¹.

The United Arab Emirates is first on Vocational and Technical Skills, but its data for some key variables were older than the threshold the index sets, and the report flags its position as less reliable than the others¹. English-speaking economies do well on Global Knowledge Skills yet leave gaps in vocational skills: the United Kingdom ranks 25th there and Australia 24th¹. Countries differ much more on Retain than on Grow, so retaining talent separates the table more than growing it¹. The pillar called Global Knowledge Skills was relabelled Generalist Adaptive Skills in the 2025 edition⁴.

Regions and income groups

The top performers are all high-income countries¹. The high-income group has a virtual stranglehold on the top 30, from Switzerland (1st) down to South Korea (30th)¹. Malaysia (27th) leads the upper-middle-income group and the Philippines (54th) the lower-middle-income group¹. Differences between income groups are larger on the Output side, above all on Global Knowledge Skills, than on the Input side¹. Four high-income countries sit outside the top 50: Hungary (52nd), Trinidad and Tobago (55th), Oman (56th) and Kuwait (65th)¹. Argentina (49th), Russia (53rd) and Venezuela (105th) were high-income in earlier years and now count as upper-middle-income¹. Chile has the highest ranking in its region, and for years it topped the upper-middle-income group before it was classified as high-income in 2016¹.

Regions follow the same order. The regions with no country in the top 30 are Central and Southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa¹. Malaysia is the standout among emerging economies, ranking first in the world on Collaboration across organisations, and Costa Rica (35th) sits above Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Saudi Arabia¹.

Diversity, the theme of the 2018 edition

The 2018 report treats diversity as a competitiveness question, in seven key messages¹. Talent diversity is still a largely untapped resource for innovation, and organisations, cities and nations are slowly learning how to use it¹. Cognitive diversity, meaning different knowledge, experience and perspectives, is what drives innovation through teamwork, and teams of diverse people outperform teams of talented but similar people¹. The index measures it indirectly, through collaboration within and across organisations, plus attention to gender diversity¹. Inclusion and diversity go together: to use diversity, organisations must build inclusive norms and cultures where voices are heard without the filter of unconscious bias¹.

Two messages concern institutions. Formal education from kindergarten to tertiary level has a crucial role in building the competences for a more inclusive world, alongside diversity training in organisations¹. Using diversity also takes bold and visionary leadership, because without it similar people tend to cluster in tribes, cliques and cohorts¹. The last two messages turn to cities: municipal leadership and local engagement are key to their success as talent hubs, and cities are perfect labs for promoting diversity¹. The 2018 edition widened its cities section to 90 cities from 46 the year before¹.

What changed in the 2018 model

The model gained questions on the quality of collaboration within and across organisations, because collaboration is becoming more important in the knowledge economy¹. Its labour-market components were strengthened with measures of active labour market policies and an improved measure of Employability, the extent to which skills match the needs of the economy¹. The number of variables rose from 65 to 68 and coverage from 118 to 119 countries¹. The audit by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre confirmed that the changes improved the model’s accuracy¹.

Both steps are described as safe for comparing ranks: few methodological changes from 2017 to 2018¹, and a model by and large unaltered from 2018 to 2019³. The methodology page explains how the pillars are built, and the rankings hub lists the other editions.

The GTCI and the Global Competitiveness Index

The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) ranking is a separate product of the World Economic Forum. Its 2018 report covers 140 economies and defines competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity⁵. The United States is first with 85.6, followed by Singapore (83.5) and Germany (82.8), with Switzerland (82.6) in 4th place⁵. The GTCI ranks 119 countries on talent and puts Switzerland first, so the two tables can disagree about the same country in the same year^1,5. For talent figures, cite the GTCI edition year with each rank.

The cities ranking in the 2018 report

The 2018 report also ranks cities. Its Global City Talent Competitiveness Index covers 90 cities, up from 46¹. Zurich is first with 71.0, followed by Stockholm (68.2), Oslo (68.1) and Copenhagen (67.1)¹. The cities model was updated to make it clearly distinct from the country index¹.

Who produced the 2018 report

The 2018 report was edited by Bruno Lanvin and Paul Evans¹. Its copyright line names INSEAD, the Adecco Group and Tata Communications¹. INSEAD’s partner profile lists campuses in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore) and the Middle East (Abu Dhabi), 145 faculty members from 40 countries and more than 1,400 degree participants a year¹. It dates the first MBA class at Fontainebleau to 1960 and the Asia campus in Singapore to 2000¹. The Adecco Group’s profile gives permanent and flexible employment to more than 700,000 people every day and counts more than 33,000 employees in 60 countries¹. These are 2018 self-descriptions, not a current profile. The editions page tracks the partners on each report.

Other editions: the 2017 results and the GTCI 2021 ranking carry full tables, and the Switzerland and Singapore story follows the top two across the series.