March 24, 2024.

BizWorld Updates Monthly Draper Innovation Index Global

Nations Compete to Land in Top Ten of Best Places Globally

to Launch a Startup

U.S. Remains #1 in DII Global, But Lead is Shrinking
Top 10 Sees Shakeup in Latest Update
Denmark and Sweden Rise, Canada and Australia Fall
Finland Replaces New Zealand in the Top 10
Malawi, Aruba, and Portugal Climb
Vietnam, Israel, and Albania Fall
China Still Languishing at 51st
Russia Falls from 201st to 208th

Oakland, California – Bizworld announces the March 2024 update to the Draper Innovation Index Global (DII Global), which evaluates each nation’s ability to develop, support, and retain entrepreneurs, innovators, start-ups, and investors. This month’s ranking updates many key data metrics and indicators, including the World Intellectual Property Organizations (WIPO) Global innovation Index, the Economist Group Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, Chainalysis’s Crypto Adoption Index, and Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.

“These additions help the Draper Innovation Index continue to achieve its goal of providing the most timely, cutting-edge global ranking of innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Bizworld founder Tim Draper. “March 2024 saw many countries rise, many fall. The Index is a constantly evolving platform to gauge progress in the rapidly evolving global entrepreneurial start-up landscape and will continue to be updated on a monthly basis throughout 2024.”

Top Takeaways from the DII Global March 2024 Update:

• After a significant drop last year, Malawi rebounded by 26 places in the DII Balanced, 42 places in the Emerging Innovation, and from 19 places in Government Quality. This was due in large part to the new Crypto Adoption rankings and improved World Uncertainty Index scores.
• Thanks to a change in its U.S. State Department Travel Advisory from “Do Not Travel” to “Reconsider Travel”, Lebanon saw its DII rankings improve from 173rd to 158th in the DII Balanced.
• The Seychelles improved from 89th to 70th in the DII Balanced and rose by 24 places in Emerging Innovation and 21 places in Government Quality due to its currency’s performance against bitcoin and its improvement on the Corruption Perception Index.
• Portugal’s improvements on the World Uncertainty and Crypto Adoption indices allowed it to jump from 38th to 19th on the DII Balanced ranking.
• Vietnam lost its first-place ranking on the Crypto Adoption Index to India and experienced a large decline on the Democracy Index. As a result, it saw the largest overall decline in the DII Balanced, falling 44 places from 94th to 138th.
• Israel’s U.S. State Department Travel Advisory score fell due to the ongoing conflict, leading to a decline from 49th place to 73rd on the DII Balanced rankings and from 57th to 87th in Government Quality.
• Albania fell from 70th to 92nd in the DII Balanced, from 68th to 91st in Emerging Innovation and from 76th to 98th in Government Quality largely due to a large decline on its Democracy Index score.
• Benefitting from improved World Uncertainty Index scores, Denmark, improved from 8th to 4th while Finland was boosted into the DII Global Top 10 by an improvement in its Democracy Index score.
• Sweden rose from 7th to 6th on the DII Balanced scenario due its currency’s stronger performance against bitcoin.
• Both Canada and Australia dropped by 2 places in the DII Top Ten due to declining Democracy Index scores.
• Despite an improvement in its World Uncertainty Index, New Zealand was dropped out of the Top Ten to 11th weighed down by a drop in its Corruption Perception score.
• Russia’s poor performance on the Democracy and Corruption Perception indices caused it to fall even further on the DII Balanced rankings: from 201st to 208th.

“The addition of new data on economic freedom from Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, The Economist’s Democracy Index, and Chainalysis’s Crypto Adoption Index had a major impact on the DII Global rankings,” said BizWorld Chief Economic Advisor Dr. Wallace Walrod. “This speaks to three of the key challenges countries face in supporting strong entrepreneurial climates: promoting democratic principles, fighting corruption, and adapting to new technology-driven realities such as DeFi. Policymakers simply cannot afford to ignore any of these foundational building blocks.”

The DII Global will release monthly updates to continually reflect the latest developments in global innovation and entrepreneurship available here.

Download the press release