Are competitiveness and inclusion incompatible? Not necessarily. The WEF ranking of the world’s most competitive economies is now complemented by the Inclusive Development Index. Which countries score better on one and worse on the other? One thing is clear for all the world’s economies: there’s room for improvement to make sure people don’t get left behind.
GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS 2018
RANK
ECONOMY
SCORE (0-100)     
1
United States
85.6
2
Singapore
83.5
3
Germany
82.8
4
Switzerland
82.6
5
Japan
82.5
6
Netherlands
82.4
7
Hong Kong
82.3
8
United Kingdom
82.0
9
Sweden
81.7
10
Denmark
80.6
11
Finland
80.3
12
Canada
79.9
13
Taiwan
79.3
14
Australia
78.9
15
South Korea
78.8
16
Norway
78.2
17
France
78.0
18
New Zealand
77.5
19
Luxembourg
76.6
20
Israel
76.6
21
Belgium
76.6
22
Austria
76.3
23
Ireland
75.7
24
Iceland
74.5
25
Malaysia
74.4
26
Spain
74.2
27
UAE
73.4
28
China
72.6
29
Czech Republic
71.2
30
Qatar
71.0
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark make the top 10 in both rankings, for competitiveness and inclusion.
UK wealth inequality has been increasing over the past five years
The most globally competitive economy, the United States, and the United Kingdom don’t even make the top 10 for inclusion
Australia, 14th in global competitiveness but 9th in inclusion, is the only non-European economy in the top 10 for inclusion.
Although 16th in global competitiveness, Norway is the best performing advanced economy in terms of making broad-based progress in living standards.
Small European economies dominate the inclusion index.
INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT 2018
RANK
ECONOMY*
SCORE (1-7)     
1
Norway
6.08
2
Iceland
6.07
3
Luxembourg
6.07
4
Switzerland
6.05
5
Denmark
5.81
6
Sweden
5.76
7
Netherlands
5.61
8
Ireland
5.44
9
Australia
5.36
10
Austria
5.35
11
Finland
5.33
12
Germany
5.27
13
New Zealand
5.25
14
Belgium
5.14
15
Czech Republic
5.09
16
South Korea
5.09
17
Canada
5.06
18
France
5.05
19
Slovenia
4.93
20
Slovakia
4.90
21
United Kingdom
4.89
22
Estonia
4.74
23
United States
4.60
24
Japan
4.53
25
Israel
4.51
26
Spain
4.40
27
Italy
4.31
28
Portugal
3.97
29
Greece
3.70
30
Singapore
N/A