Overall, Austria (52 points) is not only miles behind the USA (63 points), but also behind countries such as Canada (2nd place) and close or nearest neighbors such as Sweden (3rd), Switzerland (4th), Denmark (5th) or Ireland (6th). Places 7 to 12 are occupied by Great Britain, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic and Belgium. Behind Austria, from places 14 to 21 – with the countries in places 14 to 19 having very similar scores – are Portugal, Slovakia, Japan, France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and Italy (40 points).
The client of the study was the Foundation for Family Businesses in Munich, which yesterday published the ninth edition of the analysis, which has been published every two years since 2006. The country index is calculated as a weighted average of six sub-indices: taxes, labour, regulation, financing, infrastructure and investments, and energy. It can take point values between 0 and 100.