Switzerland leads 69 nations in digital competitiveness
Now in its ninth year, the 2025 IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking measures the capacity and readiness of 69 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government, and wider society.
Based on a mixture of hard data and survey replies from business and government executives, the ranking help governments and companies to understand where to focus their resources and what best practices might be when embarking or building upon on digital transformation.
Switzerland secures the top spot in the 2025 WDCR, driven by its world-leading performance in the Knowledge factor, where it maintains first position, and a significant three-position jump in the Future Readiness factor to second place. While its Technology factor ranking saw a slight decline of three positions to seventh, the country’s overall profile remains exceptionally strong and balanced. At the sub-factor level, Switzerland demonstrates leading performance in Talent (second), Training & Education (fifth), and Business Agility (third). Its ascent in Future Readiness is underpinned by improvements across its components, showcasing a society and business environment that is highly prepared for digital transformation.
Switzerland’s key strengths are deeply embedded in its human capital and institutional quality. It ranks first globally for the quality of employee training, the effectiveness of its scientific research legislation, its robust intellectual property rights, and its unparalleled capacity for knowledge transfer between companies and universities. However, the slight dip in the Technology factor can be attributed to relative declines in the Regulatory Framework (seventh, down from second) and Capital (15th, down from 11th) sub-factors. Specific areas for improvement include enforcing contracts, where Switzerland ranks 40th, and the penetration of wireless broadband, where it places a surprisingly low 55th.
Switzerland advanced one position from the 2024 edition. It is followed by the US, which makes a significant leap of two positions to claim second place, and Singapore, which moves down two spots to complete this year’s podium. Hong Kong SAR continues its ascent, gaining three positions to rank fourth, while Denmark slips two places to fifth. The Netherlands shows a solid improvement, moving up two positions to sixth overall. A notable new entrant to the top 10 is Canada, which jumps an impressive six positions to rank seventh. Sweden, however, experiences a decline, dropping three spots to eighth. The United Arab Emirates also enters the top 10 for the first time, climbing two positions to ninth. Finally, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) moves down one position to complete the top 10. Korea Republic (previously sixth) and Norway (previously 10th) drop out of the top 10 in 2025, losing nine and three positions, respectively.
Trade-war led uncertainty
Leaders everywhere are navigating the unpredictability of AI, talent flows, and regulatory developments, and these three economies prove that world-class infrastructure and talent pools are currently adequate mechanisms to rely on.
And yet, their glory is likely unsustainable amid today’s trade-war-led uncertainty, which is placing significant pressure on digital competitiveness at both the national and firm levels.
Amid 2025’s global context of trade fragmentation and AI pervasiveness, senior executives and government officials alike must fully understand which economies and industries are most successfully addressing today’s myriad digital challenges – and why.
Such information is key to informing partnership strategies, investment decisions, and talent development priorities and can be accessed via the WDCR’s full 2025 report.
Four important sectoral trends
In it, four sectoral trends are identified as instrumental for digital policies in the making, based on responses to 21 survey questions from 6,000 senior executives worldwide. They are:
(1) Infrastructure-intensive industries are outperforming expectations.
(2) Knowledge-based sectors are underperforming, despite their strategic importance.
(3) A lack of venture capital availability is a cross-industry constraint.
(4) Governance frameworks are hit and miss, industry-wide.
The report also helps companies and governments navigate the repercussions of trade tensions on policy by breaking matters down into five key areas: market access and expansion, access to technology, regulatory environment, innovation and R&D, and talent acquisition and retention.
(Press release / SK)