The ability to develop, attract and retain talent is crucial in today’s increasingly competitive landscape – one marked by rapid technological change, geopolitical uncertainty and deep societal transitions. As the forces reshaping work accelerate, understanding what drives talent success has never been more critical.

For more than a decade, the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) has provided a comprehensive overview of the talent competitiveness landscape worldwide. This year’s edition features a new partnership between INSEAD and the Portulans Institute, strengthening the index’s intellectual rigour and analytical depth. Beyond providing in-depth insights into what’s shaping the future of the global workforce, it offers strategies that governments and policymakers can draw on to build resilient, adaptive and human-centred talent ecosystems.

A new talent competitiveness powerhouse

While Switzerland has topped the past 10 editions of the rankings, 2025 heralds the arrival of a new leader in global talent competitiveness: Singapore.

What’s allowed Singapore to leapfrog long-time number one Switzerland, which came in second? The city-state scored well for its effective governance and high standard of living, in addition to the constant evolution of its educational system and its forward-looking approach to nurturing an adaptive and innovation-driven workforce. Singapore has also significantly improved its ability to retain talent, climbing seven places from 2023 to number 31 on this dimension.

Furthermore, Singapore placed first in the Formal Education and Regulatory Landscape measures, showing the depth and resilience of its human capital systems and institutional frameworks. It also ranked first in Generalist Adaptive Skills, a pillar measuring broad-based capabilities – spanning soft skills, digital literacy and innovation-oriented thinking – that’s emerged as one of the strongest determinants of talent competitiveness.

Looking at the rest of the top 10, Denmark rose from fourth to third and was followed by Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, the United States and Australia.

Some large economies are slipping

This year’s GTCI report threw up some interesting results relating to the world’s largest economies. The US, which placed third in 2023, slipped to ninth place. This decline was largely driven by a weaker performance in Generalist Adaptive Skills, where it dropped from fifth place to 13th, and a drop in its ability to attract and enable talent. Despite this, it performed particularly well in growing talent, as well as in vocational and technical skills.

Meanwhile, the world’s second-largest economy, China, fell to 53rd place, down from 40th in 2023. The decline in its ability to enable talent reflects a less favourable business climate and labour market conditions. However, the results should be interpreted with caution. China’s overall performance remains constrained by data availability – an issue that’s affected a few other countries – and more timely and comprehensive reporting would enable a more accurate reflection of its true potential.

Another economic powerhouse, India, climbed three spots, but only to number 100. Strengthening the quality of its vocational education and employability could help it capitalise on its digital strengths and world-leading IT service exports. Over in Latin America and the Caribbean, neither of the region’s two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, featured in the top 50. However, both nations improved their rankings from 2023, climbing one spot to 68th and four spots to 70th, respectively.

Punching above their weight

Despite the less-than-stellar rankings of the world’s largest economies, bright spots emerged in the form of countries achieving noteworthy results with comparatively limited resources.

Israel, along with Singapore and South Korea, stood out for its ability to get better talent outcomes with fewer resources. This was also true for lower-middle-income countries such as Tajikistan, Kenya, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which demonstrated exceptional talent efficiency based on input-output dynamics.

These countries show that strategic focus and effective talent systems can generate impressive results with limited resources, and that talent competitiveness isn’t just the preserve of rich countries that can invest heavily. Mature economies such as Brazil, Bahrain, France and the United Kingdom, which demonstrate a balanced input-output relationship – suggesting proportionate returns on their investments in talent competitiveness – might wish to pay more attention to this point.

Another noteworthy pattern we observed is that outperformance came from both ends of the income spectrum. At the top, high-income European economies continued to shine, powered by strong institutions, quality education and inclusive labour markets. At the bottom, smaller Sub-Saharan African economies including Malawi and The Gambia showed that even modest gains in skills and openness can deliver outsized returns.

Interestingly, no upper-middle-income economy appears among this year’s dynamic movers. This absence may indicate that, as countries move from middle- to high-income status, institutional and educational reforms often lag behind income growth. The resulting gap between economic advancement and talent-system maturity can limit competitiveness gains, resulting in a “talent plateau”. This suggests a transitional phase in which stronger coordination between education, labour and business policy could help sustain upward mobility in talent competitiveness. 

Resilience and adaptability are key

This edition of the GTCI arrives at a moment of profound and accelerated disruption. AI is rapidly transforming the nature of work. Geopolitical tensions are reshaping global mobility and talent flows. Societies are grappling with climate shocks, polarisation and declining institutional trust. In such a climate, resilience is no longer optional – it’s a core component of competitiveness. 

True resilience, or what the 2025 report terms “resilience thinking”, isn’t just about bouncing back, but also about bouncing forward. It means learning from disruption and adversity, and cultivating the flexibility, cohesion and foresight needed to thrive in an environment where stability has become the exception rather than the rule. Resilient societies are those that combine anticipatory capacity, inclusive institutions, reliable infrastructure, civic engagement and cross-sector coordination to turn disruption into adaptation and uncertainty into innovation.

The Nordic nations, Singapore and Switzerland are good examples of societal resilience in action. This entails giving priority to active labour market practices to support citizens in bouncing forward from job loss, which may accelerate with the impact of AI. It also means having educational systems that help people learn from adversity, alongside a continued focus on developing organisational agility and collaborative problem-solving, in order to turn disruption into forward-looking innovation. Together, these elements help build community-wide resilience and chart a dynamic path towards societal renewal in an age of disruption.

To achieve resilience, adaptive capabilities are key: the ability to collaborate, think across disciplines, innovate under pressure and navigate fast-moving, tech-driven environments. The Generalist Adaptive Skills dimension of this year’s report operationalises this idea within the talent framework, while new indicators on AI capability, soft skills, employee well-being and workforce resilience allow us to measure not only where countries stand, but their preparedness for what comes next.

Indeed, as AI reshapes the nature of work and skill demands, the capacity to integrate AI tools, think critically about their use, and combine technological fluency with human-centric soft skills will be indispensable. Economies that cultivate adaptable, cross-functional and AI-literate workforces will be better positioned to convert disruption into opportunity and sustain long-term competitiveness.

The year ahead… and beyond

In a time when uncertainty and anxiety are at a high point for many, the insights offered by this year’s report are both timely and relevant. Looking ahead to 2026, the GTCI will continue to monitor how different countries adapt and adjust to the ongoing disruption and upheaval caused by climate change, geopolitics and AI-driven transformation. We also plan to launch the Talent and Competitiveness Monitor, which will transform the GTCI from an annual index into a continuous intelligence system, providing real-time insights, interactive data and deep interpretive tools. 

Although much about what lies ahead is uncertain, what’s clear is that the ability to nurture diverse, adaptable and resilient talent will continue to define success in a competitive and evolving global landscape. Countries that do so effectively, drawing on both human and technological potential to pioneer new talent strategies and innovation, are well-positioned to establish themselves as attractive hubs for global talent in the future.

The 11th edition of the GTCI report covers 77 indicators across 135 countries, representing over 97 percent of global GDP. It is audited by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.