Europe is home to nine of the ten economies best equipped to develop, attract and retain business talent, according to the International Institute for Management Development’s World Talent Report 2016.

The report includes a talent ranking for 61 countries.  The only non-European country on the list was Hong Kong.

Switzerland and Denmark top the list as first and second, respectively, their same ranking as last year. While Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands rounded out the top five.

Finland, Norway, Austria, Luxembourg and Hong Kong complete the top 10, with Germany (11), Iceland (16), Ireland (18) and the UK (20) also featuring in the first 20.

The US ranked 14th, same as last year and Japan ranked 30th, while mainland China fell to 43rd.

"Talent is one of the competitive pillars of Europe,” Arturo Bris, Director of IMD´s World Competitiveness Center, said. "It´s true that the region generally continues to face a number of problems, including poor economic growth, declining momentum and negative expectations. But the quality of its education systems and its commitment to developing talent from a very young age to retirement should preserve its long-term competitiveness."

The objective of the World Talent Report is to assess how countries around the globe sustain the talent pool necessary for businesses to maximize their performances. The research draws on more than two decades´ worth of competitiveness-related data, including an in-depth survey of thousands of executives in the 61 countries studied.

Rankings are aggregated from performance in three overarching categories which include: investment/development, appeal and readiness – compiled from a wide range of factors. These factors include education, apprenticeship, employee training, worker motivation, language skills, cost of living, quality of life, pay, tax rates and brain-drain.

Each country´s evolution in the various aspects is also assessed over the course of the past decade, during which Switzerland has placed first every year.

"The effects of the economic crisis on many parts of Europe can´t be denied,” Bris said. "Germany, for instance, has been hit hard. Worsening business sentiment and a decline in both the education system and quality of life have seen it fall out of the top 10.”

"Yet Northern Europe in particular has generally retained its `powerhouse´ reputation and still represents the world´s greatest concentration of business talent hotspots. It´s especially striking that nearly every Nordic nation features in the top 10. This is mainly because their education systems feed the economy with the required talent. Language barriers and a high cost of living mean these countries aren´t really big attractors of foreign talent, yet they invest public resources in developing the right competencies,” Bris said.

"The opposite situation applies to many Asian countries,” Bris said. “They might be amazing attractors of foreign talent, but they don´t invest enough in nurturing local talent."