INSEAD, which has a major campus in Singapore, just ranked the city first in the world in talent competitiveness
Singapore has claimed the top spot in the 2025 Global Talent Competitiveness Index, overtaking long-time leader Switzerland and underscoring the city-state’s rise as one of the world’s strongest talent hubs.
The new report – produced by INSEAD in partnership with the Washington, D.C.-based Portulans Institute – ranks 135 economies on their ability to enable, attract, grow, and retain talent while developing both vocational and adaptive skills. The GTCI evaluates national talent ecosystems through indicators spanning education quality, workforce skills, institutional strength, innovation capacity, and the adaptability of human capital in the face of technological and economic change.
Switzerland had held the No. 1 position in every edition of the GTCI since its launch in 2013 – ten consecutive reports from 2013 through 2023. Singapore, however, had been steadily closing the gap: it ranked No. 2 in the previous GTCI (2023) after ranking third five years ago in the 2020 report.
