The Green, Digital and Competitive SME Index measures how well SMEs of each member state of the European Union perform across these three pillars, measured through nine indicators and 22 sub-indicators.
Digital transition
How quickly are those enterprises embracing modern technology across their organisations?
Green transition
How fast are SMEs moving to lower emissions and increase energy efficiency?
SME competitiveness
How quick are they growing and how well performing outside of home markets?
Sweden is No. 1 again in 2023 with good performance across the three pillars. Denmark overtakes the Netherlands in second place thanks to a great improvement on the green transition. And even mid-range performers like Estonia (No. 9), Lithuania (No. 14) and Romania (No. 27) do well at cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
These are the principle findings of The 2023 Green, Digital and Competitive SME Index, an incisive ranking of national performance for Europe's 23 million small- and medium-sized enterprises.
| Rank | Country | GDC Index | Digital Transition Ranking |
Green Transition Ranking |
SME Competitiveness Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweden |
72.04
|
4 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Denmark |
71.85
|
2 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Netherlands |
69.36
|
5 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Ireland |
63.58
|
3 | 22 | 1 |
| 5 | Finland |
63.19
|
1 | 14 | 8 |
| 6 | Belgium |
61.85
|
6 | 6 | 9 |
| 7 | Malta |
55.42
|
7 | 12 | 13 |
| 8 | Luxembourg |
52.96
|
20 | 4 | 6 |
| 9 | Estonia |
52.22
|
17 | 10 | 5 |
| 10 | Germany |
51.32
|
8 | 9 | 11 |
| 11 | Austria |
51.10
|
9 | 7 | 14 |
| 12 | Slovenia |
50.39
|
14 | 15 | 7 |
| EU |
47.25
|
||||
| 13 | Spain |
46.54
|
15 | 11 | 18 |
| 14 | Lithuania |
46.49
|
13 | 17 | 12 |
| 15 | Slovakia |
42.54
|
24 | 5 | 22 |
| 16 | Italy |
42.27
|
21 | 13 | 19 |
| 17 | Hungary |
42.16
|
19 | 18 | 16 |
| 18 | Portugal |
41.96
|
16 | 24 | 17 |
| 19 | France |
41.48
|
23 | 8 | 24 |
| 20 | Croatia |
40.92
|
12 | 23 | 23 |
| 21 | Czech Republic |
40.90
|
10 | 21 | 25 |
| 22 | Poland |
40.76
|
18 | 20 | 21 |
| 23 | Greece |
38.75
|
25 | 19 | 15 |
| 24 | Latvia |
37.96
|
22 | 27 | 10 |
| 25 | Cyprus |
35.89
|
11 | 25 | 26 |
| 26 | Bulgaria |
30.26
|
27 | 26 | 20 |
| 27 | Romania |
28.19
|
26 | 16 | 27 |
| Pillar | Indicator | AT | BE | BG | CY | CZ | DE | DK | EE | EL | ES | FI | FR | HR | HU | IE | IT | LT | LU | LV | MT | NL | PL | PT | RO | SE | SI | SK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Transition | SME Digitalisation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E-commerce | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Digital Skills | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Green Transition | Natural Resource Conservation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Emission Reduction | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Green Output | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SME Competitiveness | Exports | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Productivity | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Growth |
| Pillar | Indicator | Sub-Indicator - Compound Annual Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Transition | SME Digitalisation |
I.1.1
Data Analytics
2016-2020
11.82%
I.1.2
Cloud Computing
2014-2021
12.67%
I.1.3
Social Media
2015-2021
11.86%
I.1.4
High Digital Intensity
2015-2019, 2020-2022
9.8%
I.1.5
ICT Security
2019-2022
-0.22%
|
| E-commerce |
I.2.1
E-commerce Sales
2015-2022
2.8%
I.2.2
E-commerce Turnover
2015-2022
2.36%
|
|
| Digital Skills |
I.3.1
ICT Specialists
2015-2022
0.84%
I.3.2
ICT In-house
2015-2018, 2019-2022
0%
I.3.3
Training
2015-2022
1.07%
|
|
| Green Transition | Natural Resource Conservation |
II.1.1
Consumption
2015-2021
0.6%
II.1.2
Recycling
2015-2021
3.34%
II.1.3
Circular Material Use Rate
2015-2021
0.58%
|
| Emission Reduction |
II.2.1
SME Emissions
2016-2021
-1.17%
II.2.2
Overall Change in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
2015-2021
-1.38%
|
|
| Green Output |
II.3.1
SME Green Products
2015-2021
3.1%
II.3.2
SME in Green Sectors
2015-2021
-0.97%
|
|
| SME Competitiveness | Exports |
III.1.1
Exporting SMEs
2015-2020
1.19%
III.1.2
SME International Trade
2015-2020
-0.85%
|
| Productivity |
III.2.1
SME Labour Productivity
2015-2020
0.63%
|
|
| Growth |
III.3.1
High-Growth Enterprises
2015-2020
-0.56%
III.3.2
High-Growth Employment
2015-2020
-0.77%
|