Global Competitiveness in the European Union

The World Economic Forum published its annual Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) recently and while some states of the European Union faired spectacularly others, not so much.  Half of the world's top ten most competitive nations are in the EU, namely the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Finland.  The Index is made up of 114 factors ranging from property rights to reliability of police services and from the quality of roads to the prevalence of various diseases.  These 114 variables are broken up into 11 categories or "pillars" as the Index puts it: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.