Canada continued to decelerate in the Forbes' magazine's eighth annual 'Best Countries for Business' ranking, all in just a span of two years. From top five in 2012, Canada has been ranked as only the eighth most favored country for business. In 2011, Canada was number one.

At least 11 measures were used to grade the participating 145 countries on the annual list, including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, personal, trade and monetary freedom, red tape, investor protection and stock market performance.

Data were collected from various published reports by organizations such as Freedom House and the Heritage Foundation.

Canada was graded based on the following:

  1. No. 6 on trade freedom
  2. No. 77 on monetary freedom
  3. No. 9 on property rights
  4. No. 21 on each of innovation and technology
  5. No. 2 on red tape
  6. No. 4 on investor protection
  7. No. 9 on corruption
  8. No. 1 on personal freedom
  9. No. 8 on tax burden
  10. No. 58 on market performance

Despite entering the E.U. bailout in 2010, Ireland managed to grab this year's top spot, a first for the country, as the best nation for business.

"Ireland is the only nation that ranks in the top 15 percent of countries for each of the 11 categories. Despite the fiscal tumult following the recession, Ireland maintains its business-friendly atmosphere with the highest stock return among the top 30 countries and high rankings for metrics such as low tax burden, investor protection and personal freedom."

The top ten best countries for business:

  1. Ireland
  2. New Zealand
  3. Hong Kong
  4. Denmark
  5. Sweden
  6. Finland
  7. Singapore
  8. Canada
  9. Norway
  10. Netherlands