The Bureaucratic Index measures the time needed to fulfil administrative obligations for small businesses in participating countries.
The Bureaucratic Index is a simple, transparent quantification of "red tape" — discussed daily in the media, yet rarely measured in concrete terms. Introduced in 2016 in Slovakia by INESS, the Index identifies all administrative duties imposed on two model SMEs (a manufacturing firm and a hotel) and assigns each a time cost. The sum is a single, comparable number of hours — every hour backed by a specific legal obligation.
The same methodology applied in all participating countries allows direct, apples-to-apples comparison without statistical corrections. Our goal: turn the Index into a global benchmark for think tanks and advocacy groups focused on economic competitiveness.
The burden structure differs significantly from country to country. Czech Republic and Hungary suffer mainly from operational obligations, Ukraine pays a high price for legislative changes, Poland has relatively low employment-related red tape.
The overall results were calculated by averaging the time required for starting and running a small hotel and an industrial SME.
Not all obligations are equally costly. These six account for more than 100 hours — nearly 40% of the total bureaucratic burden.
Of the 272 hours of annual burden (Industry), most is spread across recurring obligations — monthly, weekly, and one-off annual.
The Bureaucratic Index is made possible thanks to the generous support of our private-sector partners.
To be added.
Our methodology is fully transferable. We can help you set up and run the index using the same proven approach — delivering comparable, hours-based results across countries.