The United States held on to the number one spot in IMD World Digital Competitiveness ranking (WDCR) in 2019, with all top five economies in the ranking unchanged: USA, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland.
In the Top 10, the Netherlands, Hong Kong SAR and Republic of Korea moved up (to 6th, 8th and 10th, respectively), while Norway dropped to 9th and Canada fell from 8th to 11th.
South Africa gained one position, coming in at 49 this year.
Now in its third year, the WDCR, produced by the IMD World Competitiveness Center, measures the capacity and readiness of 63 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government and wider society.
Several Asian economies advanced significantly in the ranking compared to 2018. Hong Kong SAR and the Republic of Korea entered the top ten while Taiwan and China moved up to 13th and 22nd respectively. All these economies experienced marked progress in their technological infrastructure and the agility of their businesses.
To evaluate an economy, WDCR examines three factors:
- Knowledge - the capacity to understand and learn the new technologies
- Technology - the competence to develop new digital innovations
- Future readiness - the preparedness for the coming developments
The IMD World Competitiveness Center (WCC) is a research centre at IMD in Switzerland with 30 years of research expertise in competitiveness.
