A First: Singapore Is No. 1 In INSEAD’s 2025 Global Talent Ranking

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. The United States slipped from third place in 2023 to ninth in 2025, falling out of the top five for the first time since 2013.

‘A LEADING GLOBAL INDICATOR FOR HUMAN CAPITAL’

Switzerland falls to second this year, followed by Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, the U.S., and Australia to round out the top 10. (See the complete 135-country ranking on page 2.) Most of the top economies are high-income countries with mature education systems, stable institutions, and strong innovation performance.

The GTCI 2025 report, themed “Resilience in the Age of Disruption,” is authored by Felipe Monteiro, academic director of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index, INSEAD; Paul Evans, emeritus professor of organizational behavior and the Shell Chair of Human Resources and Organizational Development, emeritus, INSEAD; Rafael Escalona Reynoso, director and CEO of the Portulans Institute; Shailja Bang, head of research for Portulans; and Elizabeth H. Redmond, Portulans project manager and research assistant.

“True resilience in talent is turning adversity into a catalyst for innovation, adaptability and renewed purpose,” Monteiro says. Adds Reynoso: “This collaboration brings renewed depth and clarity to the GTCI at a time when rapid technological change, geopolitical uncertainty and profound societal transitions make dependable talent metrics more essential than ever.”

‘GTCI HAS BOTH COME OF AGE & STARTED A NEW CHAPTER’

The report argues that countries that “cultivate adaptable, cross-functional and AI-literate workforces” are better positioned “to convert disruption into opportunity and sustain long-term competitiveness.” 

For Singapore, in particular, leading the index translates into advantages such as a robust talent ecosystem – strong education, effective regulatory and institutional frameworks, and a workforce skilled in “generalist adaptive skills” – soft skills, digital literacy, innovation mindset. The report also highlights Singapore’s improved ability to retain talent, a critical benefit: better retention helps ensure that investment in human capital stays domestic, strengthening long-term economic resilience and reducing brain drain.

The 2025 edition also includes a wide-ranging foreword from Lily Fang, INSEAD’s dean of research and innovation and UBS Chaired Professor in Investment Banking. “With this 11th edition, GTCI has both come of age and started a new chapter,” Fang writes, noting that the index has become “a leading global indicator for human capital.” 

Fang points to the timeliness of this year’s theme – resilience and transformation – in what she describes as “a period of maximum disruption and anxiety.” Earlier GTCI editions, she says, proved prescient in anticipating the effects of AI on the workforce. “Society,” she writes, “needs to find the resilience to bounce forward rather than simply bounce back after disruptive shocks.”

See INSEAD’s 2025 Global Talent Competitiveness Index here and the 135-country ranking on the next page.

AND DON’T MISS RANKING THE COUNTRIES THAT ARE BEST IN THE WORLD AT ATTRACTING — AND KEEPING — TALENT

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