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Israel has something of a reputation for excellence in the tech field. This extends beyond the incredible medical and telecommunication devices invented in Israel. There is also a perception that you can throw a hat in any direction in Israel and it will land on a coder or software developer.

Considering that Wix comes from Israel, this reputation is unsurprising. Wix is a website builder that anyone can use, even if they have no web design experience. Wix also has a design website that provides features that help create the most design-forward web pages.

But does the evidence back up Israel’s reputation? How does Israel’s web design industry compare to other countries? Let’s take a look at what the data says.

Top Countries for Web Design

When looking at the countries with the best web design and development industries, we find a surprising fact. While Israel is certainly a tech powerhouse, it is not the best country for web development. In fact, it is not even close. Data collected by HackerRank places Israel way down in 35th place.

In other words, Israel is in the top 50, but most companies who wish to hire web developers and designers will look elsewhere. This is in spite of the fact that, in Wix, Israel has one of the best and most popular web design websites in the world.

So, what is the best country for web design in the world? It is perhaps unsurprising, considering how much money they put into tech, that China comes in at number 1. Chinese web design is not something we speak about much in the Western world, for a number of reasons. Firstly, China bans many of the biggest websites in the world, including all Facebook (or Meta) products.

Secondly, there is a lot of mistrust in Chinese companies, with fears of the Chinese government tracking users of apps created there. This almost led to a ban of TikTok during Donald Trump’s presidency. The ban was averted not because of increased trust in China but because a U.S. company bought the American subsidiary.

Russia comes in second, and there are similarities between their treatment of the internet and China’s treatment of the internet. This pattern may indicate that it is because these countries are so set on creating their own internet ecosystems that they pour money into web design and development.

Poland, Japan, and the Czech Republic are also in the top ten. The United States and the United Kingdom come in at 28 and 29 respectively.

The question becomes why Israel is not higher up on the list. Is it because the quality of Israeli web design is poor or simply because other countries have put more focus on the industry?

Israel’s Tech Priorities

One of the reasons Israel is at the forefront of tech development is because of the resources put into developing weapons and defense systems. These resources include money, manpower, and intellectual property. The U.S. funds Israel with billions of dollars every year for this reason, as Israel shares the resultant tech with them.

Those of us who have fought in the military know that the most successful army is the one that is heard about least. The best military tech therefore flies under the radar. It is arcane rather than out in the open. In other words, the military is not making flashy websites to fight their battles, but rather focusing on tech that the average person will not know about.

The web design field, on the other hand, is one that focuses on the interaction between software and individual. Great web design is all about the user interface looking attractive and having incredible functionality. It is certainly not about covert operations.

This may be why Israel is not in the top 10 countries for web development and design. It is not because of a deficiency in the web designers here, but because web design is not an industry that is given a lot of tech funding.

China and Russia likely also put a lot of resources into developing high tech weaponry and defense systems. The major difference is that China has a population of over a billion and Russia’s population numbers 145 million. This is many times more than the population of Israel.

In other words, Israel has to choose where it channels resources, whereas countries like China and Russia have the numbers to focus on multiple tech fields. There is no reason to be perturbed by Israel’s place on the global rankings. This does not mean Israeli web designers are not good, simply that there are not as many exceptional designers as in other parts of the world.