The world is becoming a little more interconnected again: globalisation deepened in economic, social and political terms in 2023. The Netherlands remains the most globalised country in the world, while Switzerland ranks second.
International interdependence increased slightly again in 2023, as shown by the KOF Globalisation Index. The overall index rose on average compared with 2022. This increase is broadly based, with economic, so-cial and political globalisation being on average higher than in the previous year. At the same time, the bal-ance within the economic dimension is shifting: while trade globalisation declined slightly on average, finan-cial globalisation grew significantly. Social globalisation also increased markedly.
Although the composition of the top rankings remains stable, their order has changed. The Netherlands remains the most globalised country in the world. Switzerland is now in second place, ahead of Belgium. The United Kingdom remains in fourth place. Sweden moves up to fifth place, ahead of Austria in sixth, followed by Germany, Denmark, France and Finland. Although the top ten remain unchanged as a group, the scores within this group reveal different dynamics.
The scale of the changes outside the top group is much greater. In terms of overall globalisation, Afghanistan will be one of the countries achieving the largest increases in 2023 compared with 2022, while Turkey and the West Bank & Gaza will be among those suffering the sharpest declines.
Economic globalisation: trade slightly weaker, financial integration stronger
Economic globalisation increased on average in 2023 compared with 2022. However, the two sub-indices within this dimension fared differently. Trade globalisation declined slightly on average, while financial global-isation grew significantly. This countervailing trend was also evident in the de-facto figures: actual financial interdependence rose more sharply than de-facto trade interdependence.
Singapore remains at the forefront of economic globalisation, followed by the Netherlands and Belgium. The United Arab Emirates moves up to fourth place compared with 2022, followed by Switzerland. Luxembourg falls back in the economic globalisation rankings. Cyprus is new to the top ten.
Social globalisation: sharp rise driven by de-facto interconnectedness
Social globalisation shows the strongest average increase among the three dimensions in 2023. The differ-ence between de facto and de jure is particularly striking: actual social interconnectedness is growing much more sharply, while the institutional framework is changing only slightly. This finding is consistent with a situa-tion in which cross-border social activities are increasing without formal requirements changing to the same extent.
Luxembourg remains out in front, followed by Hong Kong SAR (China) and Monaco. Andorra and Singapore complete the top five. Switzerland and Norway enter the top ten. Both improve significantly in the social index compared with 2022, moving into the leading group. In contrast, Australia and Iceland fall out of the top ten.
Political globalisation: modest increase; change at the top
Political globalisation rose slightly on average in 2023 compared with 2022. Both de-jure and de-facto scores are higher on average than in the previous year. There has been a change at the top of the rankings, with the United Kingdom claiming first place, ahead of France and Germany. Germany thus falls from first to third place compared with 2022, while France remains virtually unchanged in second place. Italy and Spain follow behind. Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria remain in the top ten and reveal only minor changes in their political index scores overall.