🇱🇺 Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a 2,586-square-kilometer country of 660,000 people with a GDP of about $87 billion — giving it the highest GDP per capita in the world at over $130,000. The secret is financial services: Luxembourg is the EU's largest investment fund center (after the US globally), managing about $5.5 trillion in assets. The country hosts the European Court of Justice, the European Investment Bank, and several other EU institutions. About 47% of residents are foreign nationals, the highest proportion in the EU. Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy left in the world. The country has three official languages: Luxembourgish, French, and German.

Financial services contribute about 25% of GDP directly and much more indirectly. Steel was historically the backbone (ArcelorMittal is headquartered here), and the country is pivoting toward space — Luxembourg was the first European country to pass a law on space resource mining rights. About 200,000 cross-border workers commute in daily from France, Belgium, and Germany. The country has a AAA credit rating and virtually no public debt. SES, one of the world's largest satellite operators, is based here.

Luxembourg's fuel prices are so much lower than its neighbors that fuel tourism is a real phenomenon — gas stations near the borders do enormous business. The country has the highest car ownership rate in the world. Luxembourg became the first country to make all public transport free in 2020. The Bock Casemates, a 17-km network of underground tunnels carved into rock, once sheltered 35,000 people during wartime.

Luxembourg's financial services model is extraordinarily successful but faces pressure from EU tax harmonization efforts. The space mining bet is visionary. For a country this small, the strategic positioning is masterful.