The IEPA Index / Methodology

    How the IEPA reads an economy.

    The Innovation Ecosystem Prosperity Assessment measures how well an economy turns its capabilities into prosperity. Six zones, each scored 0 to 100, combine into one composite, and every score carries a confidence band. This is how to read it, and how it's built.

    It's built for the institutions that make investment and development decisions: governments, investment promotion agencies, development finance, universities and investors. And it goes deliberately deep where other indices are thin: most of the economies it covers are emerging and developing markets, scored with honest confidence rather than left out.

    Live · 2024 editionTier 1
    161212102030
    Composite
    0.0
    🇰🇪 Kenya
    Rank #102 of 117
    Binding constraint: FDI Accelerator at 17.4
    Innovation16–
    Entrepreneurship12–
    Alignment12–
    Resilience10–
    FDI Accelerator20–
    Prosperity30–
    Arc length = zone weight · fill = zone score · inner ring = confidence
    117Economies scored
    6Zones, published separately
    2010to the present
    WeeklyRecomputed
    1
    §1 · Specimen

    How to read any market profile.

    Every scored economy gets the same readout. Five things to look at, in this order. Switch the specimen to see how differently the same layout reads.

    🇰🇪 Kenya
    Tier 1 · Sub-Saharan Africa · 2024 edition
    36.6COMPOSITE
    Innovation Capacity34.3
    Entrepreneurship Capacity43.2
    Alignment45.3
    Resilience42.0
    FDI Accelerator17.4
    Prosperity Outcomes42.7
    RANK #102 OF 117CONFIDENCE 0.87 · SOLID
    12345
    Open the full Kenya profile →
    1. 1

      The six zones

      Each zone is scored 0 to 100 on its own. Read these first: they show where the system converts well and where it stalls.

    2. 2

      The binding constraint

      The lowest-scoring zone, highlighted. The first place to look when capability isn't turning into prosperity.

    3. 3

      The composite

      The six zones combined by weight into one 0 to 100 number. Always published alongside the zones, never in place of them.

    4. 4

      Confidence

      How solid the score is, from 0 to 1. At 0.85 and above it's solid; below 0.60 it's flagged.

    5. 5

      Tier, edition and rank

      Which evidence set the economy is scored on, which year you're reading, and where it sits among all 117.

    Read the zones first, the composite second and the rank last.
    2
    §2 · Table of zones

    Six elements of a prosperous economy.

    The Foundations are what an economy builds. The Engine is how those foundations attract investment. The Outcomes are what people actually experience. The large number on each tile is its weight, its share of the composite. The bar underneath shows the median score across all 117 economies. Tap a tile.

    Foundations · 50 points
    Engine · 20
    Outcomes · 30
    Engine · weight 20

    FDI Accelerator

    050100 median Singapore 82.9Denmark 77.4Hong Kong 97.2Sweden 77.0Norway 56.1Switzerland 50.7Malta 89.7Luxembourg 88.1Netherlands 56.3UAE 76.4Ireland 60.4Finland 62.6Czech Republic 77.3South Korea 51.3Belgium 55.7Canada 48.6Austria 67.8Slovenia 75.4Portugal 70.8Australia 38.0Lithuania 85.2United States 38.8United Kingdom 29.3Slovakia 77.7Germany 56.0Croatia 77.8France 42.6Estonia 53.4Cyprus 47.7Malaysia 65.2Poland 60.8New Zealand 24.1Israel 47.3Bahrain 86.4Latvia 76.5Spain 50.3Georgia 75.8Mongolia 87.4Chile 52.6Bulgaria 66.6Qatar 45.0Japan 18.8Thailand 62.9Serbia 80.7Mauritius 79.3Greece 61.4Vietnam 67.6Hungary 52.0Italy 35.6Saudi Arabia 43.8Costa Rica 61.3Kuwait 45.6Oman 60.7Armenia 58.7China 9.4Romania 49.6Uruguay 17.8Kazakhstan 29.4Brazil 31.6Turkey 39.6Panama 54.8Cambodia 75.6Indonesia 40.9Namibia 85.2Philippines 49.8Russia 9.0Ukraine 51.9Mexico 47.6Kyrgyzstan 58.8Senegal 63.9India 45.7Jamaica 42.5Morocco 49.2Dominican Republic 45.7Paraguay 50.9Peru 33.9Uzbekistan 44.1Tunisia 56.7Colombia 33.5Botswana 48.3Jordan 63.3Trinidad and Tobago 26.3Azerbaijan 41.8South Africa 28.7Argentina 18.4Rwanda 57.0Ghana 46.7Lebanon 82.7Cote d'Ivoire 42.4Egypt 51.0Ecuador 23.1Sri Lanka 22.1Zambia 66.7Uganda 48.6Tanzania 29.5Libya 62.5Mozambique 75.2Turkmenistan 36.8Iran 17.7Guatemala 27.8Venezuela 15.5Kenya 17.4Bolivia 16.2Tajikistan 41.5Nigeria 24.2Algeria 11.6Ethiopia 25.6Madagascar 47.4DR Congo 63.2Nepal 12.8Bangladesh 12.0Angola 19.5Cameroon 19.7Iraq 32.5Zimbabwe 18.7Myanmar 28.5Pakistan 15.0 Kenya Hong Kong

    How effectively the foundations convert into inbound investment: investment inflows relative to the size of the economy, openness to trade, logistics and investor confidence.

    20points of 10049.6median of 11797.2highest: Hong Kong
    3
    §3 · Method

    Five steps, every economy, every week.

    The same recipe runs for Singapore and for Kenya. Nothing is hand-tuned for a single market.

    1

    One scale

    Each indicator is normalized to 0 to 100, with direction handled so higher always means better. A lower unemployment rate scores higher, for example.

    Kenya: 64 indicators in play
    2

    Six zones

    A zone score is the weighted average of the most recent reading of each of its indicators, looking back up to four years so one late release doesn't blank a score.

    Kenya: 34.3 · 43.2 · 45.3 · 42.0 · 17.4 · 42.7
    3

    One composite

    The zones combine by weight: 16, 12, 12, 10, 20 and 30 points. If a zone has no evidence, the other weights are rescaled instead of a number being invented.

    Kenya: 36.6 composite
    4

    Qualify it

    Every score gets a confidence band, and the lowest zone is named as the binding constraint, so the number is never read without its context.

    Kenya: 0.87 · FDI Accelerator
    5

    Keep the evidence

    Open any zone on a market profile to see the indicators, their data year and the normalized values behind the number.

    Every score traces back
    4
    §4 · Case study

    Same score. Different stories.

    A single number hides the thing that matters most: where an economy is stuck. These economies share a composite, yet they have opposite shapes and need opposite strategies. The hatched bar marks each one's binding constraint.

    Extended tier · Africa

    🇳🇦 Namibia

    49.8
    ≈
    Tier 1 · Southeast Asia

    Philippines 🇵🇭

    49.8
    32.2
    InnovationInnov.
    48.7
    36.2
    EntrepreneurshipEntrep.
    41.8
    57.7
    AlignmentAlign.
    49.8
    48.7
    ResilienceResil.
    45.1
    85.2
    FDI AcceleratorFDI
    49.8
    38.3
    ProsperityProsp.
    55.3

    Namibia spans 53 points, from FDI Accelerator at 85.2 down to its binding constraint, Innovation Capacity at 32.2.

    Philippines spans 14 points, from Prosperity Outcomes at 55.3 down to Entrepreneurship Capacity at 41.8. Same headline, a different first move.

    5
    §5 · Confidence and coverage

    A score is only as good as its evidence.

    Every score carries a confidence value from 0 to 1. Half of it reflects how much of the expected evidence is present, three tenths the quality tier of that evidence and one fifth how recent it is, all scaled by how much of the composite's weight is actually covered.

    Extended coverage
    Moderate
    Solid
    0.000.200.400.600.851.00
    0.65Turkmenistan
    0.76Namibia
    0.87Kenya
    0.85 and above

    Solid

    Deep, recent evidence across the zones.

    0.60 to 0.84

    Moderate

    Scored with some gaps or older evidence. Read with care.

    Below 0.60

    Extended coverage

    Thin evidence. Published so the economy isn't invisible, and flagged so it isn't over-read.

    117economies scored, from 2010 to the present
    32curated: 5 Benchmark, 13 Tier 1 and 14 Tier 2, on the deepest evidence set
    85in the Extended tier, on indicators that exist for nearly every economy
    51US states and DC, scored on the same six zones and normalized against other states. Explore the US layer →
    6
    §6 · Editions

    When a score is final.

    Economic evidence is published with a lag, so the IEPA separates a final edition from current estimates. Here are real trajectories: solid through the 2024 final edition, dashed where the evidence is still arriving.

    Final edition

    2024

    The most recent year IE treats as complete. The headline year on every profile.

    Current estimates

    2025 to 2026

    Built from each indicator's most recent reading within four years. They firm up as evidence arrives.

    Recompute

    Every week

    Every score is recalculated weekly, so a profile is always the current reading.

    Evidence refresh

    Once a year

    The underlying evidence is refreshed as new editions are released, typically once a year.

    7
    §7 · Field notes

    What the IEPA is, and isn't.

    Not a verdict

    A diagnostic

    It isn't a verdict on a country. It shows where an economy's system converts well and where it stalls.

    Not investment advice

    Evidence for strategy

    It's evidence to inform strategy, used alongside local knowledge.

    Not static

    A current reading

    Scores update as new evidence is published, so a profile is a current reading, not a permanent grade.

    §8 · Glossary · tap a card

    IEPA

    No. 01 · tap to define
    The Innovation Ecosystem Prosperity Assessment: six zones and a composite, each 0 to 100, with a confidence band on every score.

    Zone

    No. 02 · tap to define
    One of six dimensions: Innovation Capacity, Entrepreneurship Capacity, Alignment, Resilience, the FDI Accelerator and Prosperity Outcomes.

    Composite score

    No. 03 · tap to define
    The weighted combination of the six zone scores. Always published alongside the zones, never in place of them.

    Binding constraint

    No. 04 · tap to define
    An economy's lowest-scoring zone. The first place to look when capability isn't turning into prosperity.

    Confidence band

    No. 05 · tap to define
    How solid a score is, from 0 to 1: how much evidence is present, its quality and how recent it is.

    Curated tier

    No. 06 · tap to define
    Benchmark, Tier 1 and Tier 2 economies, scored on the deepest evidence set. The rest are in the Extended tier.

    Final edition

    No. 07 · tap to define
    The most recent year IE treats as complete, currently 2024. Later years are current estimates.

    Current estimate

    No. 08 · tap to define
    A score for a year whose evidence is still arriving, using each indicator's most recent reading within four years.

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