According to the Doing Business 2020 study by the World Bank, East Asia, Nordic countries and the US/UK are good places to be. Africa (particularly East, North and Central Africa) and Venezuela are places to avoid. The top and bottom 10 countries are listed in the figure below.
How does the World Bank arrive at these rankings? Their approach is to measure the monetary and time cost of the following tasks:
- Starting a business
- Securing construction permits
- Getting electricity
- Registering property
- Trading across borders
- Getting credit
- Protecting minority owners
- Enforcing contracts
- Paying taxes
- Resolving insolvency
- Employing workers
- Contracting with the government
For more details, do read the whole report.