“Embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution has become a defining factor for competitiveness,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. | Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images Economy World Economic Forum study: U.S. ranks closest to ‘ideal state’

The United States leads the annual World Economic Forum’s study of global rankings for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.

Under the new framework for competitiveness, released Tuesday, the U.S. achieved the closest to the “competitiveness frontier,” or “ideal state,” with a score of 85.6. Singapore (83.5), Germany (82.8), Switzerland (82.6) and Japan (82.5) rounded out the top five in the rankings, which assessed 140 countries.


The report uses new methodology to capture the dynamics of the global economy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterized by a combination of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, idea generation and other factors.

The new tools map the competitiveness landscape through 98 indicators, using a scale from 0 to 100, which are organized into 12 pillars that note how close an economy is to an “ideal state” or “frontier” of competitiveness. The pillars are infrastructure, institutions, the adoption of information and communications technology, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labor market, financial system, market size, business dynamism and innovation capability.

“Embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution has become a defining factor for competitiveness,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. “With this report, the World Economic Forum proposes an approach to assess how well countries are performing against this new criterion. I foresee a new global divide between countries who understand innovative transformations and those that don’t. Only those economies that recognize the importance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be able to expand opportunities for their people.”

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While the U.S. received the best overall performance, the report revealed a sobering conclusion: that most economies are far from the competitiveness “frontier.” The global median is 60, with Chad registering at 35.5. Argentina is the worst-performing G20 economy, according to the report.

The report also notes the United States’ vulnerabilities, including a weakening social fabric and a debilitating security situation, due to the nation’s homicide rate, which is five times the advanced economies’ average. American weaknesses include checks and balances, judicial independence and corruption. The U.S. lags behind most advanced economies on the health pillar, with healthy life expectancy three years below the average, at 67.6 years. The U.S. trails South Korea by a full 20 points on ICT adoption regarding mobile-broadband subscriptions and internet users.

The weakest pillar across the spectrum is innovation capability and mastering the process, “from idea generation to product commercialization.” 103 countries scored less than 50 in this area. Germany and the U.S. lead this index.

