Economist Intelligence Unit

• 1. Introduction

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  The Economist Intelligence Unit has spent decades telling governments, corporations, and investors what is likely to happen next. Its parent company, the British media firm The Economist Group, built the EIU as a research and analysis division that goes well beyond reporting the news. It forecasts it. Monthly country reports, five-year economic outlooks, risk assessments, industry analyses: these are the tools the EIU uses to help clients navigate uncertainty in markets from Hong Kong to Dubai to New York. But how does an organisation that measures democracy in 167 countries, ranks broadband readiness in Greece, and maps China's fastest-growing cities actually come together? That story runs through a series of quiet acquisitions, influential indices, and a mission that has kept expanding since a UK company called Business International Corporation was folded into the EIU in 1986.

• 2. The Business International Foundation

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  Business International Corporation was a UK firm that the Economist Group acquired in 1986, and its absorption into the EIU gave the unit a deeper global reach at a formative moment. That heritage shaped what the EIU would become: an organisation with main offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Dubai, positioned to track economic conditions across nearly every region of the world. Leon Calvert has served as Managing Director since his appointment in April 2025. Before him, Robin Bew held the role; Bew had also served as the unit's Editorial Director and Chief Economist, a combination that reflected how tightly the EIU ties analytical credibility to its leadership. The four-city office structure gives the EIU a physical presence in the financial, policy, and trade hubs where its clients most need real-time intelligence.

• 3. Measuring Democracy

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  In 2006, the EIU released the first edition of its Democracy Index, an attempt to put a number on something that resists easy quantification. The index covers 167 countries and examines five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. Updates followed in 2008 and 2010, and the index has been published every year since. It now ranks alongside the V-Dem Democracy Indices as one of the two most widely used measures of democratic health worldwide. The consistent methodology across editions allows researchers and policymakers to track how countries shift over time, making the index a reference point in debates that extend far beyond the EIU's client base.

• 4. Mapping China's Rising Cities

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  In November 2010, the EIU published the Access China White Paper, directed by Stephen Dollard from the unit's China Forecasting team. The paper profiled the top twenty emerging cities in China, drawn from data gathered for a report called "CHAMPS: China's fastest-growing cities." The acronym stood for six cities the report identified as particularly compelling: Chongqing, Hefei, Anshan, Maanshan, Pingdingshan, and Shenyang. What made those cities attractive, according to the report, included the breadth of business opportunities, a sustained construction boom, and rising ownership of homes and vehicles alongside growing spending on personal appliances. By coining the CHAMPS label, the EIU gave analysts and investors a shorthand for a cluster of inland and northern Chinese cities that were often overshadowed by coastal megacities.

• 5. Broadband, Health, and Growth

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  January 2011 brought the Government Broadband Index, a tool the EIU designed to assess countries not on their current broadband capability but on how well their governments had planned for next-generation networks. The developed countries of Southeast Asia ranked highest, driven by ambitious targets for both speed and coverage. Greece came in as the worst-performing country in the index. Its relatively low coverage target, a drawn-out deployment schedule, and a high share of public funding as a percentage of government budget revenues all weighed against it; the plan also did little to encourage competition. Beyond telecommunications, the EIU expanded into health analytics through two acquisitions in 2012. In April of that year it bought Clearstate, a Singapore-based market intelligence firm focused on healthcare and life sciences in the Asia Pacific, founded in 2006. Then in December 2012, the EIU acquired Bazian, a London firm founded in 1999 by Vivek Muthu and Anna Donald. Bazian specialised in clinical evidence analysis, assessing health services, treatments, and health technologies for clinical effectiveness and value for money.

• 6. Consulting and Market Tools

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  Canback & Company joined the EIU family in July 2015. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Boston, Canback was a global management consulting firm that worked primarily with consumer-facing industries and used predictive analytics as a core method. In November 2015, just months after the acquisition closed, the EIU launched a product called Market Explorer in direct collaboration with Canback. The online tool was built to scan markets across countries and cities worldwide, helping clients identify the best locations for a product or service. Canback was eventually folded fully into the EIU in 2020, completing an integration that had been underway since the acquisition.