The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2025/2026, the world's largest study on entrepreneurship, with 160,000 people in 53 countries, reveals that six of the ten worst ecosystems for entrepreneurship are in Latin America and the Caribbean. The region produces entrepreneurs in large volume — in Chile, Guatemala, and Ecuador, one in four adults is starting or managing a business — but the survival rate is low.
“Many businesses are being born, but very few survive long enough to achieve lasting employment, innovation, and export capacity,” the report states. The causes are deficits in access to financing, regulatory efficiency, and skills development.
Chile leads the region with a score of 4.6 (on a scale of 0 to 10), ranking 27th globally. However, the score fell from 4.9 in 2024, and ten of the thirteen conditions assessed worsened. The biggest drop was in fiscal policy, from 6.5 to 5.3. The country shines in physical infrastructure (10th place worldwide) and advanced in artificial intelligence adoption, from 4.3 to 6.1.
Ecuador, despite improving its overall score and rising from 50th to 42nd place, ranks 51st in entrepreneurial financing. In Brazil, only three of the thirteen conditions exceed the sufficiency threshold, and access to credit for startups is among the worst indicators. Mexico fell to 43rd place (score 4.0), with school entrepreneurial education in 46th place and two public policy indicators among the ten worst in the world.
Argentina recorded the only sustained improvement in the region, rising from 4.0 to 4.2 and climbing to 39th place, driven by ease of market entry (11th place) and university entrepreneurial education. Still, financing, government programs, and tax policy remain obstacles. “Capital is the bottleneck,” experts consulted by GEM acknowledge.
Costa Rica had the worst performance, falling from 43rd to 50th place, with a score of 3.8. Eleven of the thirteen conditions worsened, and the biggest drop was in market entry regulation, from 4.5 to 3.8. Only physical infrastructure exceeds the minimum. Paradoxically, Costa Rican entrepreneurs show high commitment to sustainability (6.5) and artificial intelligence (5.9), but operate in an unfavorable institutional environment.
The study did not include Paraguay. Among global economies, only 16 of the 53 meet minimum ecosystem conditions, and none are in Latin America. The United Arab Emirates leads for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Lithuania (3rd) and seven of the top ten places in Asia.