List of countries by economic complexity

Summary

This list orders countries by their Economic Complexity Index (ECI), as it was defined and calculated by César Hidalgo and Ricardo Hausmann and published by The Observatory of Economic Complexity.

This image displays the non-ubiquity of national exports.
Map and Scatterplot of Countries by Economic Complexity

Country rankings edit

Country Complexity Rankings[1]
Rank Country Economic complexity index (2018) Change in 5 years
(2013-18)
Change in 10 years
(2008-18)
1   Japan 2.43    
2   Switzerland 2.17   1   1
3   Republic of Korea 2.11   4   8
4   Germany 2.09   2   2
5   Singapore 1.85     1
6   Austria 1.81   2   1
7   Czech Republic 1.80   1   2
8   Sweden 1.70     3
9   Hungary 1.66     5
10   Slovenia 1.62   3   3
11   United States 1.55   1   1
12   Finland 1.55   2   1
13   United Kingdom 1.51   2   5
14   Italy 1.44   2   3
15   Slovakia 1.41     1
16   France 1.37   2   1
17   Ireland 1.36     7
18   China 1.34     6
19   Romania 1.34    
20   Mexico 1.29   6   3
21   Israel 1.20   1   1
22   Belgium 1.18   2   9
23   Thailand 1.17     2
24   Poland 1.10   3   6
25   Denmark 1.09     5
26   Malaysia 1.03   3   1
27   Netherlands 0.98     5
28   Estonia 0.96   2   4
29   Belarus 0.89   7   1
30   Croatia 0.87   1   1
31   Lithuania 0.86   5   10
32   Spain 0.83   4   7
33   Portugal 0.80   1   1
34   Latvia 0.70   3   6
35   Philippines 0.67   3   10
36   Saudi Arabia 0.67   33   71
37   Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.67   4   1
38   Serbia 0.67   1   2
39   Canada 0.65   2  
40   Turkey 0.64   2   2
41   Bulgaria 0.55   1   5
42   India 0.54   10   8
43   Norway 0.44   8   8
44   Ukraine 0.37   1  
45   Lebanon 0.35     2
46   Tunisia 0.34   2   8
47   Costa Rica 0.33   4   10
48   Bahrain 0.30   10   37
49   Brazil 0.21   2   1
50   Cyprus 0.18   4   24
51   Jordan 0.17   1   2
52   Vietnam 0.14   11   11
53   El Salvador 0.13   2   7
54   New Zealand 0.13   5   3
55   Greece 0.11   2   3
56   Colombia 0.10   4   3
57   North Macedonia 0.07   11   8
58   Trinidad and Tobago 0.05   24   23
59   Kyrgyzstan 0.04   11   8
60   Uruguay 0.02   6   5
61   Indonesia 0.02   1   1
62   United Arab Emirates -0.01   18   6
63   South Africa -0.02   7   7
64   Russia -0.04   1   3
65   Georgia -0.04   1   21
66   Egypt -0.06   1   4
67   Eswatini -0.08   6   34
68   Tanzania -0.09   25   28
69   Mauritius -0.17   3   3
70   Dominican Republic -0.18   4   6
71   Moldova -0.18   18   13
72   Chile -0.18     1
73   Argentina -0.21   14   14
74   Panama -0.24   42   37
75   Qatar -0.31   14   36
76   Albania -0.32   7  
77   Kenya -0.34   2   1
78   Sri Lanka -0.36   1   9
79   Armenia -0.39   8   32
80   Uzbekistan -0.41   18   9
81   Namibia -0.43   3   15
82   Guatemala -0.45   9   11
83   Oman -0.48   14   17
84   Botswana -0.48   11   9
85   Mali -0.49   33   8
86   Uganda -0.50   2   5
87   Australia -0.53   3   5
88   Burkina Faso -0.55   12   28
89   Paraguay -0.55   2   1
90   Cambodia -0.56   1   12
91   Morocco -0.56   6   4
92   Jamaica -0.58   11   18
93   Kazakhstan -0.59   16   1
94   Zambia -0.62   15   12
95   Senegal -0.63   7   2
96   Laos -0.63   12   5
97   Ethiopia -0.66   19   7
98   Honduras -0.67   4   1
99   Pakistan -0.68   3   20
100   Kuwait -0.70   19   33
101   Iran -0.71   31   21
102   Togo -0.78   16   12
103   Ghana -0.80   4   2
104   Peru -0.81   12   20
105   Nicaragua -0.84   3   7
106   Turkmenistan -0.84   11   2
107   Monaco -0.88   13   11
108   Bangladesh -0.88   2   14
109   Zimbabwe -0.93   2   26
110   Ivory Coast -0.96   1   5
111   Myanmar -0.97   4   6
112   Ecuador -0.97   7   13
113   Madagascar -1.01   12   18
114   Mauritania -1.03   18   13
115   Bolivia -1.04   1   12
116   Tajikistan -1.09   4   3
117   Cuba -1.11   41   37
118   Malawi -1.12   15   6
119   Venezuela -1.14   2   1
120   Liberia -1.15   16   10
121   Mozambique -1.25   8   7
122   Algeria -1.31   7   2
123   Yemen -1.31   1   4
124   Azerbaijan -1.37   1   3
125   Republic of the Congo -1.42   3   3
126   Gabon -1.43   4  
127   Guinea -1.43   4   2
128   Libya -1.46   5   1
129   Cameroon -1.60   19   20
130   Papua New Guinea -1.68   3   3
131   Angola -1.71   7  
132   Democratic Republic of the Congo -1.80   6   9
133   Nigeria -1.90   2   3

Factors affecting differences between countries edit

As an illustration, we can observe the differences between Egypt and Thailand in ECI ranking between the years of 1995 and 2015, let us use the below figures as an example:

Rank Country ECI Value Year
45 Thailand 0.30 1995
75 Egypt -0.41 1995
24 Thailand 1.06 2015
68 Egypt -0.23 2015
  • Difference in 1995: 0.71 ECI points for Thailand
  • Difference in 2015: 1.28824 ECI points for Thailand
  • Increase for Egypt 1995-2015: 0.18037 ECI Points
  • Increase for Thailand 1995-2015: 0.7575 ECI Points

When we dig deeper into the export data of both countries, we can deduce that the differences were mainly in the composition of their relative export baskets. The more countries direct their efforts to more sophisticated products, the more it is reflected in the ECI score, and hence their potential economic growth.

For example, from 1995-2015, Thailand appears to have phased away from largely ubiquitous products “fur: 0.1 on the Product Complexity Index ("PCI"), Leather: 0.9 PCI, footwear: -0.7 PCI”, and focused their exports into products that few other countries can make “Cars: 2.47 PCI, parts and accessories of motor vehicles: 3.18 PCI, motor vehicles for transporting good: 1.87 PCI”.

Egypt, on the other hand, also experienced an increase in complexity, albeit much less than the one experienced by Thailand. They had a relatively high growth as a share of their total export portfolio in monitors and projectors: 0.9 PCI, but they also had a growth in insulated wires which has a PCI of -0.48.

So, in general, we can observe that Thailand has expanded in products with higher PCI than the ones they phased out from, while Egypt expanded in some higher PCI products, and also some lower ones hence the difference in ECI growth between the two.

For reference data, please go to https://oec.world/en/rankings/eci/hs6/hs96?tab=table

References edit

  1. ^ "Complexity rankingsThe Atlas of Economic Complexity". Harvard' Growth Lab Viz Hub. Retrieved 2020-10-31.