Rude VC: Europe’s leading VC countries, part två

Rude VC: Europe’s leading VC countries, part två
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Last month I superimposed the data for VC investment in 2012 onto a map of Europe (see here). The feedback was overwhelming, and some excellent suggestions arose along the lines of indexing the investment to each country’s respective size.

In absolute terms, out of the total 3.5 B€ invested by VCs in Europe in 2012, the UK, France, and Germany were the top three beneficiaries, with the Nordic countries following closely behind. However, the picture is quite different if we look at the data on a per capita basis (and indexing to GDP produces a similar result).

In a nutshell, the Nordics along with Ireland and Switzerland dominate the rankings. Not unexpectedly, Luxembourg is a distant outlier in the #1 spot given its official population of only half a million (which I’ve excluded from the map to improve legibility).

Any other observations are welcome.

eu-vc-2012-per-capita-mapeu-vc-2012-per-capita-table