The result also places Denmark ahead of the other Nordic economies, underlining its position as an attractive European location for international companies seeking efficient infrastructure, strong institutions and a productive business environment.

Published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the annual ranking assesses how effectively economies create and maintain conditions that enable businesses to compete.

Top 10 most competitive economies

Note: the graph shows each overall score on a scale from 0 to 100, based on its performance across the criteria included in the ranking.

The ranking assesses economies across four main competitiveness factors: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. These are divided into 20 sub-factors covering areas such as the labour market, business legislation, tax policy, education and technological infrastructure.

Denmark performs particularly strongly in several areas that matter to international companies. It ranks:

• First in Productivity and Efficiency
• First in Management Practices
• Third in Technological Infrastructure

These results reflect a productive and well-managed corporate environment supported by advanced digital and physical infrastructure. Denmark also ranks second overall in both Business Efficiency and Infrastructure.

Denmark has consistently placed among the leading economies in recent editions of the ranking. It ranked fourth globally in 2025 and sixth in 2026. IMD points to weaker economic performance and persistently high operating costs as some of the factors affecting Denmark’s latest position. Nevertheless, its strong performance in business efficiency and infrastructure continues to support an attractive and dependable environment for international business.