These are the world’s most digitally advanced countries

As part of a collaboration between the Fletcher School at Tufts University and Mastercard, we created the Digital Evolution Index and analyzed the state and rate of digital evolution across 60 countries. This evolution is the outcome of an interplay among four drivers, with about 170 indicators across them.

Our inquiry started with the following questions:

1. What are the patterns of digital evolution around the world? What factors explain these patterns, and how do they vary across regions?

2. Which countries are the most digitally competitive? Which actors are the prime drivers of competitiveness: public or private sector?

3. How do countries accelerate their digital momentum?

By measuring each country’s current state of digital evolution and its pace of digital evolution over time, we created the following chart, a map of our digital planet (see chart below). Countries on this chart fall into four zones: Stand Out, Stall Out, Break Out, Watch Out. Some countries are at the border of multiple zones.