The rankings seem almost arbitrary. South Africa is 2 for getting credit. I'm South African and there's just now way that's true. Banking in SA is extremely expensive and there's no such thing as a free checking account. Most of the population has no credit history and those who do use credit sparingly and find it hard to get.

US is 8 and UK 16 for starting a business. What does that mean? It's hard/easy to incorporate? It's incredibly easy to create a Limited company in the UK or LLC, S or C corp in the USA. (I've inc'd in both countries). What does the number 1 country have that US or UK doesn't have?

Paying taxes in the USA is 61 vs South Africa's 23? No way. Paying your taxes in South Africa is a serious pain in the behind - I continue to do it. We file our USA C corp and personal corp taxes ourselves each year and it's a breeze in the States.

My guess is this is based on public opinion with a relatively small sample size per country.