Ireland was named the best country for businesses looking to expand into new markets.Getty Images

A new report has named Ireland as the best country for business success.

Experts at the cultural intelligence platform Country Navigator have analysed factors such as cultural similarities to the UK, corporate tax rates, GDP growth and more to reveal the best countries for British businesses looking to succeed in new markets. 

Ireland was crowned the best country for UK business success, scoring 7.67/10

For UK businesses looking to expand into new markets, Ireland is a country where the chances of success are high, according to the study. Ireland has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world at 4.6% and one of the highest annual GDP growth rates at 2.6%, making it a strong contender for business expansion.  

The second-best country for business success was Poland, with a score of 6.96/10. The country has the fifth-highest annual GDP growth rate in the study at 3%, while over 4,000 searches have been carried out by Brits searching for ‘starting a business in Poland’, one of the most popular countries in the study. 

Portugal, scoring 6.71/10,  completes the top three. Over recent years, the country has introduced a range of initiatives to attract international business, including investment incentives, the Startup Visa program, and support for innovation-led companies. These factors, combined with a 19% headline corporate tax rate and an annual GDP growth rate of 2.1%, make Portugal an appealing destination for UK businesses. 

Meanwhile, Chile was named the worst country for UK business success, with a score of 3.11/10.

The top 10 countries where UK businesses are most likely to succeed:

  1. Ireland
  2. Poland
  3. Portugal
  4. Switzerland
  5. Denmark
  6. Lithuania
  7. Japan
  8. Australia
  9. Hungary
  10. Costa Rica

Chris Crosby, Co-Founder at Country Navigator, explains what businesses need to consider before expanding internationally:

“Expanding into a new market is often approached as a structural challenge – securing the right tax setup, hiring locally, and navigating regulation. In practice, the biggest barriers tend to be operational.

“How decisions are made, how feedback is delivered, and how relationships are built can vary significantly between markets. In unfamiliar environments, these differences can slow progress, create misalignment within teams, and affect how quickly a business gains traction.

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“This is particularly relevant when entering markets with strong fundamentals, but that feel less familiar. Without a clear understanding of local expectations, businesses can struggle to translate strategy into execution, even when the opportunity is clear.

“For leadership teams, this shifts the focus from market selection to team readiness. Preparing employees to operate effectively across different cultural contexts through approaches such as cultural intelligence trainingcan help reduce friction, improve collaboration, and accelerate integration.

“In my experience, the difference between a successful expansion and a stalled one is not the market itself, but how well a business adapts to it.”

You can view the report here.