The World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2016 report ranks Denmark behind only Singapore and New Zealand as the best countries for business. 

 

The third place ranking sees Denmark defend its title as the best country in Europe and move up one overall spot from last year’s report. 

 

The improvement in the ranking was greeted warmly by Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen, who said “creating a good and efficient business environment for both foreign and Danish companies is a key priority of the Danish government”.

 

“It is the second year in a row that Denmark takes a step up in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking and I hope that more foreign investors will consider growing their business in the world’s third best country for business,” Jensen said on the ministry-run Invest in Denmark website. 

 

The World Bank report pointed to Denmark’s effective digitization processes, which allow for quick and easy registration of companies, acquiring a NemID signature and registering employees with insurance. All of those procedures can be done in less than one day and registering a company with the Danish Business Authority costs just 670 kroner. 

 

The report also put Denmark at the very top when it comes to trading across borders, with free border and documentary compliance on imports and exports.

 

Denmark was one of four Nordic nations in the top ten, joined by Sweden (eighth), Norway (ninth) and Finland (tenth). The UK was sixth and the US was seventh. The full ranking can be found here. 

 

As a whole, the report concluded that 60 percent of the world’s economies had improved their business climates over the past 12 months. 

 

The Doing Business report looked at ten topics in 189 global economies: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

 

Business magazine Forbes has an even more bullish outlook on Denmark, having ranked the Scandinavian country as the world's absolute best country for business in December.