Denmark (ranking first among EU countries) and Ireland are transition leaders, followed by the Netherlands as a strong transition performer. Most EU countries (17) are either transition leaders or strong performers. All but one EU country have improved their performance since 2011 with Croatia showing an exceptional result (13.5 %). The high progress rate for the two leaders, above the average EU-27 (4.9 %), demonstrates that countries can continue to progress even from a leading position, while many strong performers continue to progress at high speed.

Performance of European Union Member States

Switzerland, together with Denmark and Ireland, show a leader performance in the TPI. No country is among the leaders in all four dimensions, which implies there is room for progress for all. Denmark is the only country in the top five for the overall TPI and each of the four dimensions, showing a very balanced profile.

On average, the performance progress rate over the period 2011-2020 is 4.3 %. Progress has been significant in the Economic (10.1 %), Environmental (6.0 %) and Social (4.7 %) transitions, whereas on average the 72 countries show a decline in Governance (-2.6 %).

The TPI shows that most countries have progressed over the past 10 years; particularly some leaders and strong performers, highlighting the continuous margin of progress.

Global performance

This year's edition of the TPI includes digital data with internet users and the proportion of people with ICT skills (a composite) to capture the role of digital competences in Economic transition.

On average, the world shows a moderate performance and the EU-27 a good performance. Switzerland ranks first, followed by Ireland and South Korea. The large heterogeneity in performance across countries highlights opportunities for progress, especially in the sub-pillar Labour productivity and R&D intensity.

Over a decade, the overall score in the Economic transition pillar has increased at the global level by 10.1 % and by 6.2 % at the EU-27 level, mainly driven by the sub-pillars Wealth and Education.

Economic transition

The pillar of Social transition shows 26 lead performers, including many EU-27 Member States, although the impact of COVID-19 is not yet fully visible in global available data and should be closely monitored over the next years. Average global progress rates in the Social pillar are in line with the global TPI progress, although there is room for improvement in the Equality sub-pillar, for the EU-27 and globally.

Social transition

Only one country, the United Kingdom, shows a leader performance in this transition, followed by Malta and Italy.

There are major divides in terms of performance and progress, between countries and even between the sub-pillars. In fact, the global progress rate for the Environmental transition is 6 %, which is above the overall TPI progress rate, but it hides great disparities in terms of performance trends according to the country and the sub-pillar..

Environmental transition

More than half of the 72 countries achieve leader or strong performances in Governance transition, with Norway ranking first, followed by New Zealand and Luxembourg. Six EU countries rank in the top 10. On average, all 72 countries taken together show a moderate transition performance and the EU-27 a strong transition performance. The progress rate in Governance transition performance is significant for most countries, especially in transparency. Despite 43 countries - in all regions of the world - having improved their Governance scores, 24 % of the total population (of the 72 countries) is living in a country in which performance in terms of Governance decreased between 2011 and 2020.

Governance transition

TPI performance per income group shows that performance in transitions is not reserved for the high-income countries. Middle-income countries have good performers such as Indonesia.

Since 2011 the most rapid improvements have taken place in different regions of the world, from Indonesia (top 4 in terms of progress) to Croatia, which tops the league, stimulated by its EU accession.

However, even if TPI results show that there is no predetermination of TPI performance by GDP per capita, the latter is still a factor of influence.

Performance by income group and region

This year's TPI explores new linkages with global multidimensional approaches as well as thematic indicators through a series of scatterplots of the TPI with other indexes.

Linkages