The World Bank Group has identified four factors that make a country attractive for individual persons as well as companies to invest in, which are
- the country's people
- environment
- relationships
- framework
In February, US News published a ranking of 2018’s Best Countries, based on a survey of 21,000 from all over the globe. Respondents were asked questions about 80 different countries, and were asked to give them grades according to 65 categories, which included entrepreneurship, quality of living, and cultural influence.
With regards to investments, US News concentrated on 8 of those categories, namely, entrepreneurship, economic stability, favorable tax environment, innovation, skilled labor, technological expertise, dynamism, and corruption. US News took the results of 6,000 survey participants who are global business innovators, and came up with the following ranking, listed along with the country's population, GDP, and the GDP growth percentage in 2016.
1. Philippines
Population: 103.3 million
Total GDP: $304.9 billion
GDP growth: 6.9%
2. Indonesia
Population: 261.1 million
Total GDP: $932.3 billion
GDP growth: 5%
3. Poland
Population: 37.9 million
Total GDP: $469.5 billion
GDP growth: 2.9%
4. Malaysia
Population: 31.2 million
Total GDP: $296.4 billion
GDP growth: 4.2%
5. Singapore
Population: 5.6 million
Total GDP: $297.0 billion
GDP growth: 2%
6. Australia
Population: 24.1 million
Total GDP: $1.2 trillion
GDP growth: 2.8%
7. Spain
Population: 46.4 million
Total GDP: $1.2 trillion
GDP growth: 3.3%
8. Thailand
Population: 68.9 million
Total GDP: $406.8 billion
GDP growth: 3.2%
9. India
Population: 1.3 billion
Total GDP: $2.3 trillion
GDP growth: 7.1%
10. Oman
Population: 4.4 million
Total GDP: $66.3 billion
GDP growth: --%
11. Czech Republic
Population: 10.6 million
Total GDP: $192.9 billion
GDP growth: 2.6%
12. Finland
Population: 5.5 million
Total GDP: $236.8 billion
GDP growth: 1.9%
13. Uruguay
Population: 3.4 million
Total GDP: $52.4 billion
GDP growth: 1.5%
14. Turkey
Population: 79.5 million
Total GDP: $857.7 billion
GDP growth: 3.2%
15. Ireland
Population: 4.8 million
Total GDP: $294.1 billion
GDP growth: 5.1%
16. Netherlands
Population: 17.0 million
Total GDP: $770.8 billion
GDP growth: 2.2%
17. United Kingdom
Population: 65.6 million
Total GDP: $2.6 trillion
GDP growth: 1.8%
18. Brazil
Population: 207.7 million
Total GDP: $1.8 trillion
GDP growth: -3.6%
19. France
Population: 66.9 million
Total GDP: $2.5 trillion
GDP growth: 1.2%
20. Chile
Population: 17.9 million
Total GDP: $247 billion
GDP growth: 1.6%
