Rankings

The annual feature of the Fortune magazine (published every July) ranks the world's largest companies according to revenues. The listings are provided in rank order and can also be sorted by company name and profits. There is also a search function. For each company, there is basic contact information (address, phone, website), the CEO's name, and figures for revenues, profits, assets, stockholder's equity, and number of employees.

The Market Potential Index (MPI), an indexing study conducted annually by MSU-CIBER, helps companies rank emerging markets on eight dimensions. The dimensions are then combined to create an overall market potential index. The latest rankings are provided on the site as well as access to past analysis.

A.M. Best Country Risk Ratings provides a list classifying various countries into the level of risk inherent in the country's governmental, economic, and social stability factors. The methodology uses country risk analysis to determine how the factors outside an insurer's control affect its ability to meet its obligations to its policyholders. The site allows you to access various country data regarding financial, economic, and political risk. The site also contains additional reports and data available for purchase.

The Foreign Direct Investment Confidence (FDI) Index prepared by A.T. Kearney is an annual survey which tracks the impact of likely political, economic, and regulatory changes on the foreign direct investment intentions and preferences of CEOs, CFOs, and other top executives of Global 1000 companies. The report includes detailed commentary on the markets and the impact a variety of global trade issues have on their FDI attractiveness, as well as a ranking of the top 25 countries.

The Global Cities Index provides a comprehensive ranking of the leading global cities from the world. It is designed to track the way cities maneuver as their populations grow and the world continues to shrink. The assessment is based on a country's economic standing, globalization rate, human capital, information and technology, cultural experience, and political engagement. The complete rankings, information about methodology, and expert analysis are all provided on the site. The index updates every year. Downloads in multiple file formats are available.

The annual Global Services Location Index, formerly called the Offshore Location Attractiveness Index, is a tool to help companies understand and compare the factors that make countries attractive as potential locations for offshore services. It measures the viability of countries as an offshore destination based on their financial attractiveness, people skills and availability, and business environment. The report and ranking files are available in PDF format.

The A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index ranks emerging countries based on a set of twenty-five variables including four key variables: country risk, market attractiveness, market saturation, and sales growth. In addition to the current year's index, the reports for previous years can be accessed on this page.  The Global Retail Development Index is available for download as a PDF. 

The Advertising and Marketing Rankings Data Center includes a wide variety of annually conducted ranking studies by Advertising Age magazine. Most rankings are accessible for free, however some of the more recent documents require a fee-based subscription.

AON Crisis Management Web Analytics includes a Political Risk Map that allows the user to select and view risks by country, region, risk type, or risk level and provides overall levels and types of risk in relation to global changes. Users may also choose to view the Terrorism Threat Map, which offers similar features to assess risk related to terrorist activity. Free registration is required to gain access to the portal. 

The Economic Freedom of the World Annual Report, produced by the Cato Institute, ranks countries based on freedom of exchange, market coordination, rule of law, security of property rights, and other dimensions related to economic freedom. Current and past versions of the report are available in PDF format.

The Commitment to Development Index is an annual ranking that grades several developed nations on how their aid, trade, migration, finance, technology, security, and environmental policies influence the development of poor nations. The site explains the methodology and the ranking of the nations. Overall country rankings are also provided.

Coface's Country Risk Assessments provide risk ratings for individual countries as well as industry sectors. Ratings for countries are based on criteria including economic, financial, and political data. Ratings also allow the user to evaluate the overall business climate in a given country.

The Emerging Market Global Players (EMGP) project, a collaborative effort led by the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, ranks multinational enterprises in emerging markets according to the level of foreign assets held. The project also works to strengthen international investment by providing educational services, policy analysis, as well as tools and resources through extensive research. Reports are listed by country and can be downloaded in PDF.

Delcredere | Ducroire provides both political risk and commercial risk assessment for countries around the world. The countries are analyzed according to economic and financial indicators like real interest rate, GDP growth rate, and inflation rate, as well as indicators reflecting a country's payment experience for commercial risk. The risk ratings are separated out by the type of commercial transaction and the time horizon.

The Global Connectedness Index ranks 125 countries based on their integration into the world economy. It provides a detailed analysis of the flows that connect the world. The study indicates that globalization is still not as advanced as most people believe and that continued economic integration could spur significant global gross domestic product gains as global connectedness has enormous room to expand, even among the most connected countries. The complete Global Connectedness Index is available for download. 

Engineering News-Record (ENR) provides an annual study that ranks contractor companies based on the construction revenue generated outside of each company's home country. The Top 250 International Contractors index ranks companies based on their international revenues. The site also offers the following rankings: the Top 500 Design Firms, the Top 200 Environmental Firms, the Top 100 Green Design Firms, and the Top 600 Specialty Contractors. Users are also able to access rankings from previous years.

Entrepreneur Magazine's Top Global Franchises ranks America's top 200 franchisers seeking international franchisees. The top global franchises are ranked by a combination of factors, including financial strength and stability, growth rate and size of the system, the number of years in business, length of time franchising, start-up costs, litigation, percentage of terminations, and whether the company provides financing. The site includes detailed information about each company featured in the ranking.

The Financial Times (FT) Global 500 provides a listing of the world's largest companies ranked by market capitalization. The list can be viewed by ranking, country, and sector. There are also separate listings for the top 500 companies in each region of the world. Available in Excel format.

The Fitch Ratings Sovereigns Group provides credit research and opinion on more than 100 countries, and assigns ratings to the foreign and local currency debt of sovereign governments that account for virtually all of sovereign international debt issuance. A subscription is required to access this information. 

Forbes provides an annual ranking of the best countries for business; examining over 139 countries on multiple factors - including gross domestic product (GDP) growth, GDP per capita, and trade balance as a percentage of GDP. To develop the rankings, Forbes looked at 11 aspects for each country including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, trade freedom, red tape regulations, investor protection, and stock market performance.

The Forbes Global 2000 listing ranks the world's largest companies as measured by a composite ranking of sales, profits, assets, and market value. Users may filter the list by industry, country, or U.S. state.

Fortune magazine publishes an annual ranking of America's largest corporations (by revenues). The site has the full rankings, plus more detailed profile information about each company in the ranking, as well as industry level rankings. The list is also sortable by state, company name, and a number of other criteria.

Fortune uses a large set of indicators to produce this annual study that presents a ranking of major companies worldwide based on their performance conceived broadly. Some of the indicators include quality of management; quality of products and services; innovativeness; long-term investment value; financial soundness; ability to attract, develop, and retain talent; community responsibility; use of corporate assets; and global business acumen. The list can also be sorted by industry, company name, and location. 

Published annually by Freedom House, Freedom on the Net ranks the internet and digital media freedom of several countries based on three factors: obstacles to access, limits on content, and violation of user rights. Individual country reports are available in HTML format, or one can view the complete publication in PDF format.

Produced by FutureBrand, the Country Index collects data from thousands of diverse global travelers to develop rankings for countries in a variety of areas. Some sample areas include standard of living, easiest to do business in, conferences, and political freedom. Users can access various reports for free but the some reports must be purchased.

Global-Production Research provides comparative information on the potential and performance of 25 emerging economies as locations for global production and sourcing. Services provided include the Global Production Scoreboard, which benchmarks emerging economies as locations for global production, and rankings for selected industries. Some rankings require registration.

Each year, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) ranks international companies as the world's best outsourcing service providers in the Global Outsourcing 100. The four criteria for rankings are size and growth, customer references, organizational competencies, and management capabilities.

Inc.com is aimed at helping business owners and CEOs start, run, and grow their businesses more successfully. The Inc. 5000 list is an exclusive ranking of the United States' fastest-growing private companies. Users can view the full list or utilize a search function.

IndustryWeek magazine ranks the 1000 largest publicly held manufacturing companies annually based on revenue and provides recent articles about current and former IW1000 companies. Access to the data is through a flexible search engine, which allows the data to be ranked and/or limited by several criteria, including industry, country, company name, revenue growth, or sales revenue. An analysis of the ranking and rankings archives are also available.

The Innovation Cities Program's Top 100 World Cities for an Innovation Economy ranks cities all around the globe on their innovation in their businesses and economies. A city's innovation is determined and ranked by a score of three main factors of innovation: cultural assets, human infrastructure, and networked markets. Rankings are available based on cities all around the world, as well as cities in specific regions and emerging markets.

The Best 100 Global Brands are ranked annually by Interbrand. The ranking can be filtered by industry sectors, countries, and regions. Users can learn about a brand's value by clicking the brand's logo. Previous reports dating back to 2000 can be found by clicking on the tab "Previous Years."

The Cost of Living City Rankings survey by Mercer measures the cost of living in 214 cities across 6 continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees. The site provides the top 10 cities for free and the complete report is available for purchase.

The Global Opportunity Index (GOI) by the Milken Institute ranks countries based on five categories: economic fundamentals, financial services, business perception, institutional framework, and international standard policy. The index looks at the economic and financial factors that influence investment activities, and is unique in that it looks at factors relevant to both FDI and portfolio flows.

The Happy Planet Index ranks over 150 countries based on the life satisfaction, life expectancy, and ecological footprint exhibited by each country. It is a resource designed to rank and compare countries based on the number of "happy lives" produced per unit of environmental output, and the extent to which these countries produce "happy lives" for their citizens. Data is accessible through an interactive global map or a table.

The Observatory of Economic Complexity, created by Alexander Simoes at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), ranks countries based on the amount of useful knowledge embedded in it. The ranking is based on the idea that a country's economy grows as the complexity and specialization of its products increases.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) Country Risk Classification measures the country credit risk and the likelihood that a country will service its external debt. The index uses a scale of eight risk categories to determine a country's credit risk. The rankings are available in PDF format.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Indicators of Employment Protection measure the procedures and costs involved in dismissing workers and the procedures involved in hiring workers on certain contracts. Data is available for most countries in PDF format.

Paying Taxes is a study from PwC and the World Bank that ranks the ease of paying taxes across 189 countries around the world. The study also measures the administrative burden of tax payments and contributions by recording the taxes medium-sized companies must pay in a given year. The site allows the user to either order a hard copy of the study or download it in PDF format.

The Country Sustainability Ranking by RobecoSAM and Robeco ranks countries on their Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. The score for each country is based on 17 ESG indicators.

The KOF Index of Globalization, provided by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, measures globalization on economic, social, and political dimensions by looking at economic flows, restrictions, information flows, personal contact, and cultural proximity. Detailed data is available for download, and users can utilize the mapping and graphing tools that add an informative visual element to the data. Data from 1970-present is available for over 200 countries.

The Financial Secrecy Index, by Tax Justice Network, ranks countries based on their financial secrecy laws and the amount of offshore financial activities. The index was first released in 2015.

The Good Country Index was created by Simon Anholt, Honorary Professor at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. The index ranks countries based on their contributions to the common good of humanity and also their negative impact on the common good, relative to the country's size. The index is global in scope, looking at how countries impact the wider world.

Provided by Transparency International, the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) focuses on corruption related to tackling climate change, documenting in detail risks for businesses, ranging from small entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa to multinationals from Europe and North America. The CPI ranks countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. Rankings dating from 1995 to present are available. Annually updated, reports can be purchased in print form or can be downloaded (free) in PDF format.

The U.S. News & World Report Best Countries to Invest In Ranking compares countries on eight equally weighted attributes pertaining to investment. The ranking is published in partnership with BAV Consulting and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Overall Best Countries Ranking, prepared by U.S. News & World Report, is an annual report that is based on how global perceptions define countries in terms of a variety of qualitative characteristics. The characteristics assessed have the potential to increase trade, travel, and investment as well as directly affect national economies. The site provides an overall list of ranked countries and also elaborates on the scoring of each individual characteristic and its sub-characteristics. 

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) ranks the largest non-financial Transnational Corporations (TNCs) by their foreign assets and presents data on assets, sales and employment in three categories:  the largest worldwide, the largest from developing countries and the largest from the economies in transition in Eastern Europe. The same ranking, together with an analysis of the relevance of these TNCs in the world economy, is included in the various issues of the World Investment Report. Documents are available for download in various formats. An archive of reports from previous years dating to 1991 is also available by clicking the "WIR Series" link on the upper right-hand corner of the page.

The United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Reports provide information on human development index trends worldwide. It allows one to build their own development index, explore development indicators, and also chart human development statistics for many nations.

Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index is part of the Climate Change Adaptation program of the University of Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative. Readiness measures a country’s ability to leverage investments and convert them to adaptation actions. This ranking compares the readiness of countries based on the factors of economics, governance, and social readiness.

The World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) is an interactive benchmarking tool to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in trade logistics and what they can do to improve their performance. Based on a worldwide survey of global freight forwarders and express carriers, the LPI offers profiles and insight into logistics friendliness across 150+ countries.

World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) provides a ranking of 215 countries and territories based on six dimensions of governance, including political stability, government effectiveness, and control of corruption. The report is an aggregate project with rankings beginning in 1996. Data is available interactively and in PDF and Excel format. Documentation on the methodology of the indicators is also available.

The report identifies and measures the underlying factors that contribute to high rates of economic growth in the medium term (a time horizon of about 5 years). These factors are quantified and then combined into an Index of Competitiveness. The website provides access only to an interactive map (link on right column) that provides the current state of world countries with various hotspots clickable for detailed explanation. The report is available in PDF format; rankings are available in PDF and Excel formats.

The Global Enabling Trade Report analyzes which countries around the world enable trade from country to destination by measuring market access, border administration, transport and communications infrastructure, and the business environment in that country. The report mainly focuses on the impact of global value chains and logistics investments. The report and rankings are available in PDF format.

A report produced in cooperation with INSEAD, World Economic Forum, and the World Bank, the Global Information Technology Report ranks the world economies in terms of networked readiness and effects on economic growth and productivity. The rankings as well as a selection of chapters are available online.

The Open Data Barometer, published by the World Wide Web Foundation, grades countries on the prevalence of open data in the country, along with the impact that existing open data is having on business, politics, and society. Open data must be available online, open-licensed, machine-readable, available in bulk, and free of charge.

The Web Index is designed and produced by the World Wide Web Foundation and measures the Internet's growth, utility, and impact on countries around the world. Many indicators are incorporated into this study that assess the political, economic, and social impact of the Web. The index also gives details about the Web connectivity and infrastructure of each country.

The Environmental Performance Index was first released at the World Economic Forum in 2001. The index measures countries on their efforts to have a positive impact on the environment.