Guatemala atop the most entrepreneurial countries in the world

By Mayora IP

Guatemala ranks third globally in the latest Global Entrepreneur Monitor, behind Chile and India and ahead of Canada, Luxembourg, United States, Ireland and Austria. Guatemala is particularly known for its successful startup scene in technology and telecom – in a World Economic Forum report the country ranks first in mobile network coverage.

“Guatemala has had consistently high levels of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial activity is used by Guatemalans to generate income and improve their living conditions. The results for the 2018-2019 cycle show that the early-stage entrepreneurial activity stands at 27.5% of all adults; approximately 13.7% of all adults start a new venture and 13.8% run new firms (less than 3.5 years old). The rate of established business ownership (adults running firms older than 42 months) measures 11.2%. Guatemala has the highest rate of seeing entrepreneurship as a good career choice (94.3% for the current cycle). The country has consistently held respect and admiration for entrepreneurs, understanding how important it is for them, their families and communities to keep working hard in spite of difficult situations,” the report states.

The Global Entrepreneur Monitor is a benchmark of over 100 countries on a range of factors that influence the degree of entrepreneurialism. These include macro factors such as availability of start-up funding, education and an innovation ecosystem, but also individual facets including courage and self-motivation of people to start an own business.