Best Countries for Entrepreneurs

The World Bank Group has published their annual "Doing Business" report that ranks 181 countries on how friendly their regulatory climate is to entrepreneurs.
The report provides a quantitative measure of regulations for starting a business as they apply to domestic small and medium-size enterprises.
Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business. The ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business.

Ease of Doing Business

1. Singapore
2. New Zealand
3. United States
4. Hong Kong
5. Denmark
6. United Kingdom
7. Ireland
8. Canada
9. Australia
10. Norway

The Ease of Doing Business Index is an index created by the World Bank. Higher rankings indicate better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights. Empirical research funded by the World Bank to justify their work claims to show that the effect of improving these regulations on economic growth is strong.

"Empirical research is needed to establish the optimal level of business regulation—for example, what the duration of court procedures should be and what the optimal degree of social protection is. The indicators compiled in the Doing Business project allow such research to take place. Since the start of the project in November 2001, more than 800 academic papers have used one or more indicators constructed in Doing Business and the related background papers by its authors"

Other Criteria:

• Ease of Doing Business
• Starting a Business - Procedures, time, cost and paid-in minimum capital to open a new business
• Dealing with Construction Permits - Procedures, time and cost to obtain construction permits, inspections and utility connections
• Employing Workers - Difficulty of hiring index, rigidity of hours index, difficulty of firing index, firing cost
• Registering Property - Procedures, time and cost to transfer commercial real estate
• Getting Credit - Strength of legal rights index, depth of credit information index
• Protecting Investors - Strength of investor protection index: extent of disclosure index, extent of director liability index and ease of shareholder suits index
• Paying Taxes - Number of tax payments, time to prepare and file tax returns and to pay taxes, total taxes as a share of profit before all taxes borne
• Trading Across Borders - Documents, time and cost to export and import
• Enforcing Contracts - Procedures, time and cost to resolve a commercial dispute
• Closing a Business - Recovery rate in bankruptcy

Source: World Bank - Doing Business