2026-03-03 02:25:00
Startup ecosystems are emerging around the world, but a small group of countries continues to lead the charge.
Created in partnership with Terzo, this graphic shows the countries that rank highest by entrepreneurship ecosystem. It’s part of our Markets in a Minute series, which delivers quick economic insights for executives.
According to StartupBlink, the United States dominates with a score of 254.1, more than three times higher than second-place United Kingdom (70.7). Israel (62.2), Singapore (54.7), and Canada (45.4) complete the top five, highlighting a mix of scale-driven giants and highly efficient innovation hubs.
| Global Startup Ecosystem Index | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ranking | Country | Score |
| 1 | U.S. | 254.1 |
| 2 | UK | 70.7 |
| 3 | Israel | 62.2 |
| 4 | Singapore | 54.7 |
| 5 | Canada | 45.4 |
| 6 | Sweden | 35.3 |
| 7 | Germany | 33.2 |
| 8 | France | 32.4 |
| 9 | Switzerland | 31.7 |
| 10 | Netherlands | 30.9 |
| 11 | Estonia | 30.7 |
| 12 | Australia | 28.8 |
| 13 | China | 26.9 |
| 14 | Spain | 23.2 |
| 15 | Finland | 22.9 |
| 16 | Ireland | 21.2 |
| 17 | Denmark | 20.8 |
| 18 | Japan | 18.1 |
| 19 | Lithuania | 17.5 |
| 20 | South Korea | 16.6 |
The rest of the ranking is spread across Europe. Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands maintain strong positions thanks to deep talent pools and access to capital.
These scores are based on three core components that together define ecosystem strength.
The first is quantity, which includes variables like the number of startups, investors, and accelerators operating within a country. The second is quality, which includes total private-sector startup investment and startup employment. Finally, the startup business environment measures factors such as diversity, internet speed and affordability, and internet freedom.
By combining these subindexes, the ranking provides a holistic snapshot of where founders have the strongest foundations to launch and scale new ventures.
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2026-03-03 01:19:05
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How indebted is your country today?
Based on the latest available data (Q4 2025) from the Institute of International Finance’s Global Debt Monitor, several major economies now carry total debt loads exceeding 300% of GDP, meaning their combined household, corporate, and government borrowing is worth more than three years of economic output.
This visualization ranks 35 countries by their total debt-to-GDP ratios, combining household, corporate, and government borrowing into one measure.
With a total debt burden of 380%, Hong Kong has the world’s highest total debt. This small special administrative region (SAR) of China is highly developed and urbanized, counting roughly 7.5 million inhabitants.
While its government debt is a relatively slim 67% and its total household debt of 86% hovers around global developed-country standards, Hong Kong’s corporate debt is a staggering 227% of GDP, making up nearly the entirety of its total debt burden.
The table below shows the total debt burden and breakdowns for household, corporate, and government debt to GDP:
| Country | Household Debt (% GDP) | Nonfinancial Corporate Debt (% GDP) | Government Debt (% GDP) | Total Debt (% GDP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Hong Kong |
86 | 227 | 67 | 380 |
 Japan |
60 | 113 | 199 | 372 |
 Singapore |
45 | 130 | 172 | 347 |
 France |
59 | 156 | 110 | 326 |
 Canada |
100 | 118 | 97 | 315 |
 China |
60 | 142 | 97 | 298 |
 United States |
68 | 73 | 123 | 264 |
 South Korea |
89 | 111 | 49 | 249 |
 Italy |
36 | 59 | 141 | 236 |
 Malaysia |
70 | 88 | 66 | 224 |
 Thailand |
88 | 76 | 60 | 223 |
 Bahrain |
24 | 56 | 143 | 223 |
 United Kingdom |
74 | 59 | 81 | 214 |
 Germany |
49 | 89 | 63 | 200 |
 Israel |
43 | 71 | 70 | 184 |
 Brazil |
36 | 50 | 92 | 178 |
 Jordan |
27 | 56 | 90 | 172 |
 Grenada |
37 | 64 | 68 | 168 |
 Maldives |
18 | 17 | 132 | 167 |
 India |
39 | 49 | 74 | 163 |
 Vietnam |
23 | 107 | 32 | 161 |
 Hungary |
18 | 70 | 73 | 161 |
 Chile |
41 | 86 | 31 | 158 |
 Senegal |
5 | 29 | 123 | 156 |
 South Africa |
34 | 35 | 79 | 149 |
 Tunisia |
23 | 39 | 81 | 143 |
 El Salvador |
22 | 25 | 88 | 134 |
 Trinidad and Tobago |
34 | 35 | 65 | 134 |
 Kuwait |
41 | 83 | 7 | 131 |
 Republic of the Congo |
3 | 35 | 93 | 131 |
 Czech Republic |
32 | 51 | 47 | 129 |
 Russia |
21 | 79 | 27 | 127 |
 Ecuador |
29 | 44 | 52 | 125 |
 Morocco |
20 | 37 | 67 | 124 |
 Colombia |
26 | 28 | 68 | 121 |
 Zambia |
6 | 8 | 107 | 120 |
 Mozambique |
9 | 12 | 97 | 118 |
 United Arab Emirates |
27 | 56 | 34 | 117 |
 Poland |
22 | 35 | 59 | 116 |
 Jamaica |
19 | 36 | 60 | 115 |
 Lao PDR |
11 | 12 | 91 | 114 |
 Rwanda |
12 | 27 | 73 | 113 |
 Costa Rica |
34 | 14 | 60 | 108 |
 Saudi Arabia |
31 | 45 | 28 | 105 |
 Oman |
24 | 44 | 35 | 104 |
 Romania |
11 | 29 | 61 | 102 |
 Egypt |
7 | 20 | 75 | 102 |
 Argentina |
6 | 20 | 76 | 101 |
 Kenya |
9 | 23 | 67 | 100 |
 Philippines |
11 | 26 | 59 | 96 |
 Mongolia |
23 | 24 | 47 | 93 |
 Dominican Republic |
14 | 17 | 60 | 91 |
 Gambia |
7 | 6 | 74 | 87 |
 Mexico |
17 | 21 | 48 | 86 |
 Peru |
13 | 41 | 31 | 86 |
 Pakistan |
2 | 10 | 72 | 84 |
 Serbia |
16 | 23 | 44 | 83 |
 Côte d'Ivoire |
8 | 18 | 56 | 82 |
 Sri Lanka |
10 | 71 | 0 | 80 |
 Indonesia |
15 | 24 | 40 | 79 |
 Bangladesh |
6 | 30 | 40 | 77 |
 Türkiye |
10 | 38 | 27 | 75 |
 Angola |
1 | 8 | 62 | 71 |
 Benin |
5 | 16 | 51 | 71 |
 Ethiopia |
5 | 16 | 47 | 68 |
 Ghana |
3 | 5 | 59 | 66 |
 Papua New Guinea |
4 | 8 | 50 | 62 |
 Tanzania |
7 | 6 | 50 | 62 |
 Kazakhstan |
19 | 14 | 25 | 58 |
 Nigeria |
13 | 7 | 36 | 56 |
 Cameroon |
3 | 8 | 38 | 49 |
 Honduras |
0 | 0 | 45 | 45 |
 Tajikistan |
11 | 6 | 22 | 39 |
 Uzbekistan |
0 | 0 | 31 | 31 |
However, Hong Kong’s high corporate debt can best be explained by the SAR’s real estate business, in which high-debt transactions are standard. The dynamic real estate sector and related activities contribute roughly a quarter to Hong Kong’s GDP.
In contrast, Japan’s corporate debt (113%) is relatively in line with other OECD and developed peers; however, the government’s sprawling government debt of just shy of 200% of GDP is higher than many countries’ total debt burden.
Government debt woes began to take off following the Lost Decades of economic stagnation which followed the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble in 1991.
As years of sluggish growth turned into decades, Japanese policymakers opted to incorporate quantitative easing, a policy by which the central bank bought government bonds in order to stimulate economic activity in the country, driving up the country’s national debt in the process.
Today the Bank of Japan owns roughly half of the national debt, while the other half is held in large part by domestic banks and insurance companies.
Japan is not the only country to have had to accrue debt in response to tough times. Back-to-back crises have forced governments to borrow extensively in recent years, from global COVID-19 stimulus responses to more recent industrial and defense purchases across Europe.
Many governments continue to run large fiscal deficits, while households and businesses face rising borrowing costs amid economic uncertainty.
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Biggest Foreign Buyers and Sellers of U.S. Debt on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.
2026-03-02 23:22:23
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China is in the middle of the largest nuclear construction push in the world.
Dozens of reactors are rising across the country, representing nearly 43 gigawatts of new generating capacity. That buildout alone exceeds what every other nation currently has under construction combined.
This chart breaks down which countries are expanding nuclear power in 2025, and below we also cover how much power they are adding to their grids.
The data comes from the World Nuclear Association.
China currently has 37 reactors under construction, representing roughly 42.9 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity.
That is more than six times the capacity being built in either India or Russia, the next closest countries.
As electricity demand rises and older plants retire, nuclear expansion will play a decisive role in shaping long-term energy security and grid stability.
| Country | Reactors Under Construction | Megawatts |
|---|---|---|
|
China |
37 | 42.9K |
|
India |
6 | 5.2K |
|
Russia |
6 | 4.2K |
|
Egypt |
4 | 4.8K |
|
Türkiye |
4 | 4.8K |
|
South Korea |
3 | 4.2K |
|
Bangladesh |
2 | 2.4K |
|
Japan |
2 | 2.8K |
 Ukraine |
2 | 1.9K |
|
United Kingdom |
2 | 3.4K |
|
Argentina |
1 | 0.03K |
|
Brazil |
1 | 1.4K |
|
Hungary |
1 | 1.2K |
 Iran |
1 | 1.1K |
|
Pakistan |
1 | 1.1K |
 Slovakia |
1 | 0.5K |
|
Canada |
0 | 0K |
|
France |
0 | 0K |
|
USA |
0 | 0K |
Most reactors are initially licensed to operate for about 40 years, though many receive extensions to 60 years or even 80 years with upgrades and maintenance. As older plants reach the end of their lifespans, new reactors are needed to replace retiring capacity, support grid stability, and help countries meet long-term decarbonization goals.
India and Russia are tied for second place with six reactors each under construction. India’s projects total 5.2 GW of capacity, slightly above Russia’s 4.2 GW.
After that, activity drops off quickly. Egypt and Türkiye each have four reactors underway, while most other countries are building one or two.
Notably, several established nuclear powers are absent from the list. As of September 2025, the United States, France, and Canada have no reactors under construction.
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out How Much Control China Has Over the World’s Critical Minerals on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.
2026-03-02 21:03:08
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Nvidia, with a $4.8 trillion market valuation, is the world’s most valuable company in 2026.
The company has once again surpassed Apple and Alphabet as record sales lift its valuation, despite AI bubble fears. Meanwhile, TSMC’s $2 trillion market cap now exceeds both Meta Platforms and Tesla, ranking in sixth globally.
Using data from CompaniesMarketCap, this graphic shows the 50 most valuable companies worldwide in 2026.
Here are the largest companies by market capitalization as of February 25, 2026:
| Rank | Name | Country | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nvidia |
U.S. |
$4,769,090,895,872 |
| 2 | Apple |
U.S. |
$4,030,215,225,344 |
| 3 | Alphabet |
U.S. |
$3,786,845,192,192 |
| 4 | Microsoft |
U.S. |
$2,976,667,402,240 |
| 5 | Amazon |
U.S. |
$2,261,686,681,600 |
| 6 | TSMC |
 Taiwan |
$2,009,122,209,792 |
| 7 | Saudi Aramco |
Saudi Arabia |
$1,659,869,263,655 |
| 8 | Meta Platforms |
U.S. |
$1,653,772,779,520 |
| 9 | Broadcom |
U.S. |
$1,575,548,878,848 |
| 10 | Tesla |
U.S. |
$1,566,227,562,496 |
| 11 | Berkshire Hathaway |
U.S. |
$1,067,125,637,120 |
| 12 | Walmart |
U.S. |
$1,002,825,187,328 |
| 13 | Eli Lilly |
U.S. |
$971,747,753,984 |
| 14 | Samsung |
South Korea |
$953,387,784,196 |
| 15 | JPMorgan Chase |
U.S. |
$818,792,038,400 |
| 16 | Exxon Mobil |
U.S. |
$629,201,108,992 |
| 17 | Visa |
U.S. |
$603,784,871,936 |
| 18 | Tencent |
China |
$602,976,288,768 |
| 19 | ASML |
 Netherlands |
$592,511,303,680 |
| 20 | Johnson & Johnson |
U.S. |
$591,292,792,832 |
| 21 | SK Hynix |
South Korea |
$492,511,926,210 |
| 22 | Micron Technology |
U.S. |
$482,640,887,808 |
| 23 | Mastercard |
U.S. |
$455,227,998,208 |
| 24 | Costco |
U.S. |
$441,631,375,360 |
| 25 | Oracle |
U.S. |
$425,078,030,336 |
| 26 | AbbVie |
U.S. |
$400,878,174,208 |
| 27 | Procter & Gamble |
U.S. |
$382,102,667,264 |
| 28 | Roche |
 Switzerland |
$380,012,805,029 |
| 29 | Bank of America |
U.S. |
$377,648,578,560 |
| 30 | Home Depot |
U.S. |
$373,943,992,320 |
| 31 | ICBC |
China |
$369,137,809,154 |
| 32 | Chevron |
U.S. |
$368,560,832,512 |
| 33 | Alibaba |
China |
$363,649,957,888 |
| 34 | General Electric |
U.S. |
$361,938,288,640 |
| 35 | Caterpillar |
U.S. |
$358,505,119,744 |
| 36 | Netflix |
U.S. |
$350,804,246,528 |
| 37 | Coca-Cola |
U.S. |
$346,150,469,632 |
| 38 | AMD |
U.S. |
$343,772,135,424 |
| 39 | Agricultural Bank of China |
China |
$331,706,101,844 |
| 40 | China Construction Bank |
China |
$329,442,725,971 |
| 41 | LVMH |
France |
$324,094,895,625 |
| 42 | HSBC |
United Kingdom |
$323,268,870,144 |
| 43 | Novartis |
Switzerland |
$322,706,767,872 |
| 44 | Palantir |
U.S. |
$320,938,967,040 |
| 45 | AstraZeneca |
United Kingdom |
$319,598,690,304 |
| 46 | Toyota |
Japan |
$315,160,494,080 |
| 47 | Applied Materials |
U.S. |
$313,424,740,352 |
| 48 | Lam Research |
U.S. |
$313,366,904,832 |
| 49 | Cisco |
U.S. |
$312,610,619,392 |
| 50 | Merck |
U.S. |
$305,828,593,664 |
As the largest publicly-traded company in the world, Nvidia recently posted a record $68.1 billion in quarterly earnings, up 94% year-over-year.
With OpenAI, Oracle, and Microsoft among its largest customers, a string of strong earnings reports has pushed its valuation close to a $5 trillion market capitalization. Still, investor skepticism has tempered share price gains amid concerns about overvaluation.
Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft follow, each valued at roughly $3 trillion or more.
Saudi Aramco, one of only two non-U.S. companies in the top 10, ranks seventh with a $1.7 trillion valuation. Weaker oil prices have weighed on its performance, with shares down about 30% from their 2022 peak.
Meanwhile, chip designer Broadcom ranks ninth at nearly $1.6 trillion. In addition to producing custom AI accelerator chips for OpenAI and Meta, it designed Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs).
Today, Broadcom is increasingly emerging as a competitor to Nvidia, alongside companies such as Google (#3) and AMD (#38) as Big Tech prepares to spend $650 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone.
To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the largest U.S. semiconductor firms by market cap.
2026-03-02 06:25:45
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What began in March 2011 as pro-democracy protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s government spiraled into one of the most brutal conflicts of the 21st century, drawing in regional and global powers and resulting in immense human suffering. Over more than a decade of war, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, and millions were forced from their homes.
These charts from Our World in Data and sourced from the UN, Eurostat, the IMF, World Bank and others show the many costs of conflict — from fatalities to economic collapse and rising poverty.
Here’s a detailed look at the data behind the war’s impacts:
| Category (Syria) | Initial Data (2004) | Peak Data Point | Most Recent Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deaths due to fighting | ~0 | 79,000 | 3,600 |
| Deaths from all causes | 73,000 | 160,000 | 120,000 |
| Deaths of children under 5 | 11,000 | 23,000 | 10,000 |
| Internally displaced people | ~0 | 7.6 million | 7.3 million |
| International refugees | 22,000 | 6.9 million | 6.4 million |
| GDP per capita | $9,500 | $9,600 | $4,200 |
| Share in extreme poverty | 0.50% | 17% | 17% |
| Share undernourished | 6.50% | 34% | 34% |
The data illustrate several harsh realities: annual deaths from fighting spiked after 2011 with devastating loss of life, including among children, while total deaths from all causes rose. Millions of Syrians became internally displaced or refugees, GDP per capita plunged, and extreme poverty and undernourishment grew sharply.
The conflict began during the Arab Spring when peaceful protests were met with force by government security services. What followed was a fragmented civil war involving government forces, opposition groups, Kurdish militias, extremist factions, and international actors; including Russia, Iran, the U.S., Turkey, and others.
At its peak, organized violence devastated cities like Aleppo, Homs and Raqqa, and fracturing Syrian society. Hundreds of thousands were killed across combatants and civilians, and millions more were displaced internally and abroad, which remade the country’s demographics and burdened neighboring states.
The war’s impacts extend far beyond immediate conflict deaths. GDP per capita more than halved as economic activity collapsed amid destruction of infrastructure and displacement of workers. Extreme poverty (once rare in Syria) surged, while undernourishment became widespread.
This aligns with broader findings that violence imposes costs on societies far beyond direct combat, from lost productivity to health crises and long-term poverty.
Though large-scale warfare has diminished, Syria faces a fragile transition. Recent agreements between the central government and Kurdish forces aim to stabilize parts of the country, but humanitarian needs remain acute. Millions still depend on aid, and access to essential services is uneven.
Political fragmentation, economic collapse, and reconstruction needs—estimated in the hundreds of billions—mean recovery will be lengthy and uncertain, even as some areas see renewed governance and investment.
2026-03-02 02:43:00
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In just a few decades, European empires redrew the map of Africa.
In the span of roughly 40 years, European powers had carved up nearly the entire continent, transforming Africa into a patchwork of colonial territories administered from London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, Rome, and Madrid.
This map captures that moment at its peak, on the eve of World War I, when imperial control stretched across almost the whole continent before the war began to unravel Europe’s overseas empires.
Many of Africa’s modern national borders trace directly back to this period, reflecting colonial-era agreements rather than preexisting cultural or political boundaries.
Data used here leverages diverse sources including UNESCO (1990), Eric Hobsbawm (1987), Henk Wesseling (1997), EBSCO (2023), and the Library of Congress.
European empires had been making incursions into Africa for centuries, as seen through the Dutch settlers who arrived in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 and Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian expedition in 1798.
However, the era of New Imperialism which began in the second half of the 19th century saw significantly more complex colonial efforts by the European great powers, especially the British, French, and Germans.
The “Scramble for Africa” saw these three great powers partition the African continent amongst themselves, with the process perhaps best represented by the 1885 Berlin Conference.
Some of the active colonial powers, such as Belgium or Portugal, were smaller countries without extensive military power, while some European great powers like Russia and Austria-Hungary did not participate in the Scramble for Africa.
The British Empire was the most successful of the European empires in Africa, ruling over nearly uninterrupted lands across the eastern half of the continent.
London’s dreams of a Cape to Cairo railway linking their dominions in Egypt and South Africa were dashed by geographic and political concerns, as the eastern Belgian Congo was inhospitable for railway construction while German East Africa was a possession of the leading British rival of the era.
Following the end of the Great War, the British would take control of the latter territory, in what is today the country of Tanzania, although economic concerns during the Great Depression led to the dreamed railway never coming to fruition.
While the British were dominant in eastern Africa, the Maghreb and much of West Africa fell under French control. There were of course nuances between cases: Algeria was annexed to the territory of metropolitan France, while Morocco and Tunisia were each protectorates ruled by leaders loyal to the French Empire.
Nor did Morocco remain solely French-administered, as a 1912 treaty gave Spain dominion over northern parts of the country, near the Straits of Gibraltar, as well as a southern component bordering its Spanish Sahara colony.
By this point in history, Spain, much like neighboring Portugal, was holding on to its final few colonies following major losses of control in the Americas in the preceding decades. The two Iberian countries’ lack of involvement in the world wars led to them keeping their African colonies longer than most other European states, with independence and decolonization only coming in the 1960s-1970s.
Owing to great-power ambivalence over the Congo Basin, Belgium’s King Leopold was able to establish a single vast colony, far larger than his own country, over which to rule. Belgian Congo, with its vast rubber extraction, has been cited as one of the most brutal and damaging colonies within the continent.
Meanwhile, further north only two countries managed to avoid colonization during the Partition of Africa: Ethiopia and Liberia.
The former, also known as Abyssinia, successfully repelled Italian colonization during the prewar partition, although it was eventually occupied by Fascist Italy during the interwar period. Liberia, meanwhile, was founded by freed U.S. slaves and was never colonized, helping it become Africa’s longest-lasting independent state today.
Is there any correlation between Roman emperors’ life spans and currency debasement? To learn more, check out this visualization on Voronoi.
