Operations

Cost of Doing Business Worldwide: How Countries Stack Up (Slideshow)

March 23, 2022

A new study crowns Canada as the most cost-effective place in the world to do business. The U.S. ranks fifth with China coming in at No. 11.

O Canada: 2.54 on the 5-Point Scale

Our neighbor to the North didn’t dominate any one category, coming in fifth in labor quality, for example. On primary measures, such as labor costs, real estate, utilities and taxes, Canada was tied for sixth, behind India, Vietnam, Mexico, China and Malaysia. On secondary measures such as railroad networks, political risk and access to the Internet, it ranked fourth, behind the U.S., Switzerland and the UK. It was Canada’s mix of reasonable primary and secondary costs that combined for the win.

Scores

Hourly Worker Compensation: 3.00
Quality of Labor: 2.33
Real Estate: 2.00
Ease of Doing Business: 2.33
Infrastructure: 2.42
Utilities: 2.00
Risk and Protections: 2.00
Corporate Tax Rates: 3.00

Slide 8 of 8

Labor and energy costs are important, but they’re not the only things to consider when evaluating how expensive it is to produce goods in a country. Worker productivity, regulatory concerns, transportation costs and many other factors influence how expensive a location can be.

The Manufacturing Institute partnered with KPMG to produce the report “Cost of Manufacturing Operations Around the Globe” to quantify and rank country competitiveness on multiple factors.

Country cost rankings on several factors range from 1 (the lowest) to 5 (the most expensive). While low-wage Asian countries scored well, North America dominates the Top 5, and it’s typically the higher-wage countries with the lowest overall costs.