Pulling Rank
A data-driven case for optimism about Britain's economy
Let’s start the year on a positive note. Not grounded in hope, but in data. Despite the challenges, the UK remains one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business. Across multiple independent rankings, produced by different institutions using different methodologies, the UK sits comfortably in the global top tier. We aren’t at the frontier on every single metric — but we’re very close on many.
On innovation, the UK ranks sixth globally in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index, which aggregates around 80 indicators — spanning institutions, human capital, infrastructure, market sophistication and innovation outputs. We perform especially well at turning innovation inputs into new technologies, creative goods and commercially viable ideas.
Caveats aside, Britain also leads in science. On the Nature Index, which tracks high-quality publications in leading journals, the UK ranks fourth globally. Four of the top five research institutions in Europe are British. On Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list, the UK ranks third worldwide, reflecting a deep concentration of researchers whose work sits in the global top 1%.
Britain is a magnet for top talent too. INSEAD’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index places the UK firmly among the world’s leaders. In the latest Times Higher Education Rankings, two of the global top five universities are British — Oxford ranked first and Cambridge joint third. The QS World University Rankings also place two institutions in the top five, with Imperial ranked second and Oxford joint fourth.
This depth of knowledge shows up in the structure of the economy itself. On Harvard’s Economic Complexity Index, the UK sits in the top tier of advanced economies. It captures how diversified and sophisticated a country’s exports are, which is a proxy for accumulated, hard-to-replicate productive knowledge. On the Government AI Readiness Index, the UK ranks second globally, behind only the United States. It highlights strong policy coordination out of Westminster, including the AI Opportunities Action Plan, alongside major research partnerships with the EU and US.
It is easier to run a company in the UK than in most other countries. The Global Business Complexity Index deems the UK to have one of the least complex business environments in the world, based on performance across 292 indicators covering tax, accounting, payroll, human resources and entity management.
By international standards, the UK also remains one of the most open services markets in the world. According to the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index, the UK ranks second overall among 51 economies analysed. London meanwhile ranks second globally in the Global Financial Centres Index. This depth of finance translates into scale: London attracted more VC investment in 2025 than Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Munich and Madrid combined, while the UK ranks fourth globally for unicorns on the Hurun Global Unicorn Index, behind only the United States, China and India.
It might not always feel like it, but the UK remains well governed. On the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index, it ranks fourteenth out of 143 countries analysed. For an economy built on services, contracts and intangible assets, that matters enormously. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index tells a similar story, placing the UK firmly within the “very clean” tier of public-sector environments.
These are not cherry-picked statistics. After reviewing around 70 international rankings, I filtered hard for robustness and relevance. Echoing our Research Director Eamonn Ives, there are always methodological criticisms to make with these kinds of rankings, but taken as a whole they paint a fair picture. On many of the hardest-to-build dimensions — innovation, research, services openness, finance and the rule of law — the UK consistently sits in the leading pack.
One could look at this wealth of evidence and conclude that everything is going swimmingly. To do so would be short-sighted. For a start, we aren’t the clear leaders in much, so there’s plenty of room for improvement in many areas. Second, competitor economies are swiftly catching up. Staying ahead of them now depends as much on new initiatives as on discipline. We need to double down on allowing existing strengths to compound, remove avoidable frictions and come up with innovative policies to lead the world. More on that in the year to come.
Our Next Events
Dinner with the Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP: Re-Energising British Businesses
🗓 Wednesday, 14 January 2026
🕐 6.30pm to 9.30pm
📍 Central London
ℹ️ A private roundtable dinner with the Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP on reducing energy costs for businesses and the opportunities this creates for innovative startups
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Ecosystem Builders: IDEALondon
🗓 Wednesday, 21 January 2026
🕐 9am to 10.30am
📍 Shoreditch
ℹ️ Join us for an informal morning meetup at IDEALondon for Ecosystem Builders
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Female Founders Forum Parliamentary Report
🗓 Tuesday, 27 January 2026
🕐 3.30 pm to 5pm
📍 House of Lords
ℹ️ The Entrepreneurs Network and Barclays are hosting a reception in the House of Lords bringing together founders, investors and supporters to launch the new Female Founders Forum report on female-led university spinouts
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News and Views
We published the latest instalment in our Three Big Ideas series
This morning the FTSE 100 broke 10,000 points for the first time in history
Funding for British tech companies hit £11.7 billion in 2025, with seed-stage investment jumping nearly 20%
One-third of companies are planning to invest in AI tools in 2026 as part of plans to grow and improve productivity, according to a new survey (Paywall – The Times)
John Gapper investigates what explains the high spirits of so many entrepreneurs in Britain (Paywall – Financial Times)
Sifted report on the New Year resolutions being made by founders and investors across Europe
A surge of founders are looking to exit their businesses ahead of higher taxes on sales (Paywall – The Telegraph)
High living costs, crippling taxes and bad weather – just some of the reasons causing young people to leave Britain for pastures new
17 predictions for AI in 2026
28 thoughts on abundance and growth from Matt Clancy
1,084 good news stories about how the world is getting better
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Breakthrough Growth: How to Build a Team That Scales With You
🗓 Tuesday, 20 January 2026
🕐 6pm to 9pm
📍 Central London
ℹ️ SCALE presents an interactive session for scaleup founders and leaders who want to move beyond incremental gains
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The Maple Review Survey
⏰️ Deadline: Saturday, 31 January 2026
ℹ️ The Maple Review aims to identify and dismantle the barriers to entrepreneurship caused by economic deprivation; please take this survey if you feel this work applies to you
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Happy New Year!
Philip
Philip Salter
Founder
The Entrepreneurs Network