A study by the finance and research company, NimbleFins, has ranked the Netherlands as the fourth-best country in Europe for start-ups. The Netherlands comes behind Germany, the UK and Switzerland.

The rise of the Netherlands

The Netherlands has been ranked as the fourth-best country in Europe for start-ups in an annual ranking by NimbleFins, rising from 10th place the previous year. The company analysed data from the World Bank, World Economic Forum, UNESCO, OECD and tax consultancies to rank 31 countries in 4 different categories.

The countries were given a score from 1 to 31 (lowest figures being better scores) in Economic Health, Cost of Doing Business, Business Climate and Labour Force Quality. The Netherlands scored generally quite well in each category, scoring 2 in Economic Health, 6 in Business Climate and 5 in Labour Force Quality. However, the Netherlands performed poorly in Cost of Doing Business with a score of 27. This gave the Netherlands an average score of 10,0 across the four categories.

The Netherlands boasts the second healthiest economy in Europe, according to the ranking, with a GDP of 909,1 billion dollars and 52.448 dollars per capita. The Netherlands high score in Labour Force Quality is due to high rates of upper secondary and tertiary education as well as high levels of staff training and quality vocational training.

You can find more information regarding the methodology of the study and a detailed breakdown of the individual categories on NimbleFins’ website.

The best countries for start-ups

Below are the top 10 countries for start-ups in Europe, along with their average category score.

1. Germany – 6,0
2. United Kingdom – 7,8
3. Switzerland – 8,3
4. Netherlands – 10,0
5. Ireland – 10,5
6. Denmark – 11,8
7. Finland – 12,0
8. Norway – 12,3
9. Czech Republic – 12,8
10. Sweden – 12,8