5 Most Advanced Countries in Europe

4. Netherlands

Insider Monkey’s Score: 94

The Netherlands is a Northern European country known for having most of its land mass located just at sea level and a big chunk below it. Its Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the oldest exchange in Europe, and the Dutch have a laundry list of inventions to their names. Out of these, some notable examples include the fire hose, the gyrator, particle beam cooling, and the red light camera. Its most important company is ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML). The firm is right at the heart of modern day semiconductor fabrication, as it is the only one capable of making advanced chip manufacturing machines. These are capable of printing circuits as small as 2 nanometers.