Forbes published the eighth annual ranking of the best countries for business on Wednesday, December 5 and Ireland topped the list for the first time.

Ireland has moved up from sixth position in the influential rankings last year. The rankings are determined by grading 145 nations on 11 different factors: property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance.

Each category is equally weighted and the data comes from published reports from the following organisations: Freedom House, Heritage Foundation, Property Rights Alliance, Transparency International, World Bank and World Economic Forum.

Armenia was ranked 64th in he Forbes list, up from 77th spot last year.

Among post-Soviet states, Estonia was ranked the highest (23rd spot). Lithuania was ranked 25th, Latvia - 35th, Georgia - 50th, Kazakhstan - 70th, Azerbaijan - 67th, Moldova - 88th, Russia - 91st, Kirgizstan -109th.

Hong Kong, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Canada, Norway an Netherlands made it to the top 10, with U.S. and China placed 14th and 94th respectively.