Luxembourg Drops from 2nd to 3rd Place in IMD World Talent Ranking

Luxembourg has fallen from 2nd to 3rd place in the latest IMD World Talent Ranking.

At the top of the 2024 IMD World Talent Ranking was Switzerland (also #1 in 2023), followed by Singapore (+6) and Luxembourg (-1). Sweden (+6) and Denmark (+2) rounded out the top 5.

The report scores the performance of 67 economies in terms of their ability to attract, develop and retain talent. The criteria is grouped based on three factors: investment and development of home-grown talent; how much a country appeals to talent; readiness, i.e. what skills and competencies exist in the talent pool.

Luxembourg obtained an overall score of 81.69% and retained its spot in the top 3. In 2023, it had jumped to 2nd place, up from 7th in 2022; previously, in both 2020 and 2021, it had ranked 3rd.

In 2024, Luxembourg ranked 2nd for the investment in and development of talent (87.95%), 4th for its appeal (66.38%) and 23rd for readiness (55.78%).

According to the report, the country's main strengths were: total public expenditure on education per student and the pupil-teacher ration in primary education (investment and development), remuneration of management and the statutory minimum wage (appeal), plus language skills (readiness).

Its main weaknesses were: the percentage of women making up the total labour force (41.05%; investment and development), the cost-of-living index and collected personal income tax (appeal), and the availability of skilled labour and competent senior managers (readiness).