The Netherlands ranks third in Europe, yet investments lag behind
The Netherlands ranks third out of 29 European countries in a new ranking of the business environment.
Published on September 2, 2026
The Netherlands belongs to the European frontrunners when it comes to the business environment, according to Leadfeeder's new ranking. The country scores particularly well on innovation, digitalisation, and labour participation. The most striking highlight is the labour market, where the country boasts the highest employment rate among all surveyed countries. In sharp contrast, however, is a low rate of investment, with the Netherlands sitting near the very bottom of the table on this metric.
In the overall ranking, the country takes third place out of 29 European nations examined, with a score of 64.6. Only Sweden (74.8) and Denmark (69.2) achieve higher scores.
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The Netherlands' strongest asset
The most notable standout for the Netherlands in the ranking is its labour market. 83.4 percent of people in the Netherlands aged 20 to 64 are in work. This gives the country the highest employment rate of all 29 surveyed nations.
High labour participation is not the only area where the Netherlands excels. The country also performs well above average in innovation, knowledge-intensive activities, and digitalisation.
Strong in innovation
Innovation is one of the ranking's four core categories. The Netherlands ranks fourth, behind Germany, Sweden, and France. Leadfeeder examined metrics including patent and trademark applications alongside the share of employment in knowledge-intensive activities.
The Netherlands ranks fifth out of the 29 countries for patent applications, with 491.3 filings per million inhabitants. Germany tops the list with 779.6 applications per million inhabitants, followed by Finland with 740.4 and Sweden with 641.9. Denmark ranks fourth with 591.3 applications.
The Netherlands also belongs to the European vanguard in trademarks. With 2,768.2 applications per million inhabitants, the country ranks seventh. Türkiye leads this table with 4,286.1 applications per million inhabitants, followed by France, Cyprus, and Portugal.
Putting innovation to work
Beyond generating innovation, the Netherlands performs strongly in enterprise digitalisation, holding fifth place out of 29 countries in this category. Denmark takes first place overall in enterprise digitalisation.
According to the study, a third of Dutch businesses (33.2 percent) use AI, placing the country fifth. Cloud computing has also penetrated the Dutch business community relatively deeply: 68.5 percent of enterprises use cloud technologies, securing sixth place.
One clear outlier
Contrasting with strong performances in innovation, digitalisation, and labour is a distinct weak spot: capital investment.
The Netherlands ranks only 25th out of 29 countries in gross fixed capital formation, with this metric coming in at 20.1 percent of Dutch GDP.
This places the Netherlands near the bottom of the table, sharing the rate with Bulgaria. By comparison, Türkiye leads with 30.6 percent, followed by Czechia at 26.4 percent and Bosnia and Herzegovina at 25.8 percent.
Broad consistency trumps singular brilliance
In short: the Netherlands is not outright dominant in any single category, but consistently scores well across the board. The country ranks third overall, first in labour participation, fifth in business digitalisation, fifth in AI adoption, and fifth in patent applications. Set against this is a 25th-place finish in investment. This pattern mirrors several of the leaders in the ranking: the top-ranking nations are not necessarily defined by a single runaway score. Their strength lies not in one dominant innovation metric, but in a balanced combination of factors.