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U.S.: Top of the Heap—For Now
The U.S. creates the most supportive environment in the world for information technology firms, according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted for the Business Software Alliance. The world's largest economy still does the best job in incubating innovative startups and developing top engineering talent, the study finds. Yet the U.S. is slipping.
The study ranks 66 countries by IT competitiveness, measuring six factors: the supply of skilled workers; the strength of intellectual property laws; the openness of the economy; the development of a tech-friendly infrastructure; government leadership; and an innovation-friendly culture. The countries that perform well in all six, the study found, are those with IT sectors that contribute more than 5% to a nation's gross domestic product.
The most important of the six is a country's research and development environment, measured by the number of IT-related patent registrations; this makes up 25% of a country’s score. IT infrastructure—the availability of broadband, secure servers, computer use, and market spending on hardware—accounted for 20%. Another 20% of the score is devoted to human capital, which measured the number of university students as a percentage of the college-aged population; enrollment in science programs; tech employment as a percentage of the total workforce; and the school system’s ability to train tech workers with business skills.
*New to Index
