Estonia a standout for start-ups

The small north-eastern member state of Estonia bucks geographical trends on the environment for entrepreneurial growth, a report from the Joint Research Centre has said.

There is a strong correlation between European countries’ overall level of economic development and their environment for entrepreneurial activity, the report said. Estonia is a sole exception to this trend.

While Scandinavian countries, the UK and the Netherlands were the only countries deemed to have ‘excellent’ conditions for entrepreneurs, Estonia was placed alongside Germany, France, Austria and Belgium in being found to have ‘very good’ conditions. All other EU member states were judged to have either ‘good’ or ‘fair’ conditions.