The Most Globalised Countries

Worldwide globalisation continues to develop flatly. The flattening in globalisation that began in 2015 is continuing. Recent US trade wars and an isolationist President have also exacerbated things. Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium are the most globalised countries in the world. The current KOF Globalisation Index reflects economic, social and political globalisation since 1970.

The KOF Globalisation Index measures the economic, social and political dimensions of globalisation. It is used in order to monitor changes in the level of globalisation of different countries over a long period. The current KOF Globalisation Index is available for 195 countries and covers the period from 1970 to 2016. The index distinguishes between de facto and de jure globalisation in the overall index as well as in the economic, social and political dimensions. The index measures globalisation on a scale from 1 to 100. The figures for the constituent variables are expressed as percentiles. 42 different variables are used, which are aggregated on the basis of statistically determined weights (principle component analysis).

Asian countries aren’t as diverse or as globally-connected as many people would think.

The level of worldwide globalisation increased rapidly between 1990 and 2007. However, the financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession have slowed down its development. Since 2015, globalisation has continued to flatten out. Even in 2016, the most recent year of the index, the level of globalisation rose only slightly. Economic globalisation stagnated. Although financial globalisation continued to progress, trade integration declined somewhat at the same time. Social globalisation increased only slightly. Global information flows continued to increase, but at the same time the degree of cultural globalisation declined slightly. Of all the dimensions, political globalisation increased the most.

Rank Country Globalisation Index, overall
1 Switzerland 91.17
2 Netherlands 90.97
3 Belgium 90.50
4 Sweden 89.88
5 United Kingdom 89.35
6 Denmark 89.14
7 Austria 88.95
8 Germany 88.17
9 France 87.20
10 Finland 86.99
11 Norway 86.40
12 Spain 85.30
13 Czech Republic 85.19
14 Hungary 85.13
15 Ireland 84.64
16 Canada 84.38
17 Luxembourg 83.73
18 Estonia 83.60
19 Portugal 83.52
20 Singapore 83.38
21 Slovak Republic 82.89
22 Italy 82.59
23 United States 82.10
24 Australia 81.58
25 Slovenia 81.28
26 Poland 81.20
27 Malaysia 81.14
28 Croatia 80.90
29 Lithuania 80.84
30 Greece 80.75
31 Bulgaria 80.24
32 Latvia 79.85
33 Romania 79.36
34 Korea, Rep. 79.23
35 Malta 78.46
36 Japan 78.37
37 Serbia 78.34
38 Cyprus 78.27
39 New Zealand 77.91
40 Israel 77.23

Published by Editorial Team

The Asia Rising Editorial Team is made up of a multinational team of writers, content experts and journalists from around the world operating out of our Bureaus in New York, Bangkok, Toronto and while on assignment across Asia.