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The Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD), also known as the European Institute of Business Administration, has released the 2019 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), titled: Entrepreneurial Talent and Global Competitiveness. The report, published in collaboration with Adecco Group and Tata Communications, reveals that entrepreneurial talent has become a key differentiator in relative talent competitiveness.

Switzerland, Singapore and the United States, according to the report released on Monday, continue to lead the world in talent competitiveness, while countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa are seeing a progressive erosion of their talent base. As in previous years, higher rankings are associated with higher income levels. Policies and practices that bring about talent competitiveness in more developed countries are less susceptible to political and socioeconomic fluctuations. Hence, high-income economies have the stability to invest in lifelong learning, reinforcing skills, and attracting and retaining global talent.

Following the top three on the GTCI are Norway (4th), Denmark (5th), Finland (6th), Sweden (7th), Netherlands (8th), United Kingdom (9th) and Luxemburg (10th). The report confirms that talent issues have become mainstream concern for firms, nations and cities, with talent performance seen as a critical factor to growth and prosperity.

The top ten countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are Mauritius (47th), Botswana (62nd), South Africa (71st), Rwanda (73rd), Namibia (78th), Kenya (85th), Gambia (93rd), Ghana (94th), Nigeria (99th) and Senegal (102nd).

The result further shows that the highest-ranking countries and cities tend to be the most open to entrepreneurial talent, while digitalisation and globalisation are increasing the role of entrepreneurial talent.

According to the report, cities rather than countries are developing stronger roles as talent hubs and will be crucial to reshaping the global talent scene. The growing importance of cities is due to their greater flexibility and ability to adapt to new trends and patterns – as nimble economic units where policy can be changed more swiftly. Cities are thus more attractive to entrepreneurial talent.

The top-ranked city on the 2019 GTCI is Washington, D. C., followed by Copenhagen, Denmark; Oslo, Norway; Vienna, Austria; Zurich, Switzerland; Boston, United States; Helsinki, Finland; New York, United States; Paris, France; and Seoul, Korea. Washington’s position can be attributed to its strong performance across four of the five pillars measured by the research, namely “Be Global,” “Attract,” “Grow” and “Enable” pillars.

According to the report, Washington’s steady economy, dynamic population, outstanding infrastructure and connectivity, highly-skilled workforce and world-class education are all characteristics, which contribute to making the city such as a talent hub.

The GTCI report is a comprehensive annual benchmark for measuring how countries and cities grow, attract and retain talent, providing a unique resource for decision-makers to understand the global talent competitiveness picture and develop strategies for boosting their competitiveness.

The 2019 GTCI, for the first time, provides a longitudinal analysis of talent competitiveness based on the results of all GTCI editions since 2013. Its main finding is that the gap separating the talent champions from the rest of the global community has been growing. Talent competitiveness is strengthening in groups of countries where it is already comparatively high and weakening in countries where it is relatively low.

“In the top ten of talent competitiveness ranking, only two non-European countries can be seen: Singapore and the USA,” said Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director of Global Indices at INSEAD, and Co-editor of the report. “This underlines that Europe remains a talent powerhouse, but also that countries with great universities and a strong education sector are best at attracting talents. Because high-level talents are also more mobile internationally, no comparative advantage can be seen as irreversible, and those (European) countries will need to remain open and innovative to keep their leadership.”

The report measures levels of global talent competitiveness by looking at 68 variables. The 2019 GTCI covers 125 national economies and 114 cities across all groups of income and levels of development.