Countries That Provide the Easiest Access to Capital

Sintia Radu

Access to money is one of the key components of any economy that wants to incentivize startup growth and business development. The easier it is for entrepreneurs and business people to get the capital they need, the faster the business sector grows.

While the U.S. has traditionally been perceived as a place for businesses to flourish, European countries dominate this category in the 2019 Best Countries report. Scandinavian countries, as well as Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom seem to be performing better at granting those with good ideas more opportunities to finance their plans.

Being seen as offering easy access to capital is one of 10 attributes used to develop the Entrepreneurship sub-ranking in the 2019 Best Countries report. The survey is based on a study that surveyed more than 20,000 global citizens from four regions to assess perceptions of 80 countries on 75 different metrics.

The following are the top 10 countries viewed to grant easiest access to capital.

Netherlands

Easiest Access to Capital: 10
Best Countries Overall Rank: 11

Learn more about Netherlands.

Finland

Easiest Access to Capital: 9
Best Countries Overall Rank: 14

Learn more about Finland.

Sweden

Easiest Access to Capital: 8
Best Countries Overall Rank: 6

Learn more about Sweden.

Australia

Easiest Access to Capital: 7
Best Countries Overall Rank: 7

Learn more about Australia.

Germany

Easiest Access to Capital: 6
Best Countries Overall Rank: 4

Learn more about Germany.

Luxembourg

Easiest Access to Capital: 5
Best Countries Overall Rank: 19

Learn more about Luxembourg.

United Kingdom

Easiest Access to Capital: 4
Best Countries Overall Rank: 5

Learn more about United Kingdom.

Canada

Easiest Access to Capital: 3
Best Countries Overall Rank: 3

Learn more about Canada.

United States

Easiest Access to Capital: 2
Best Countries Overall Rank: 8

Learn more about United States.

Switzerland

Easiest Access to Capital: 1
Best Countries Overall Rank: 1

Learn more about Switzerland.

Want to Know More?

The 2019 U.S. News Best Countries rankings, formed in partnership with BAV Group, a unit of global marketing communications company VMLY&R, and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, aim to gauge global perceptions of the world's largest economies.

Find out how your country did in the 2019 Best Countries rankings and explore more news, data and analysis on U.S. News.

Sintia Radu covers international affairs and technology for U.S. News & World Report. You can follow her on Twitter @sintiaradu and send her suggestions and ideas at sradu@usnews.com.