Switzerland, Sweden, the United States of America (US), the Republic of Korea and Singapore top the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025 ranking, followed by the United Kingdom, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark and China, which breaks into the top 10 for the first time. Meantime, slowing growth in innovation investments is clouding the innovation forecast, the report found.
The GII uses some 80 indicators, ranging from research and development (R&D) spending, venture capital (VC) deals, high-tech exports and intellectual property filings in evaluating nearly 140 world economies on their innovative performance. It is the world’s benchmark resource for policymakers, business leaders and others in promoting innovation and building strong innovation ecosystems.
Now in its 18th edition, the GII shows that a group of middle-income economies – led by China, India (38th), Türkiye (43rd), Viet Nam (44th), the Philippines (50th), Indonesia (55th), Morocco (57th) – continue their climb in the GII. Since the turn of the decade, Saudi Arabia (46th), Qatar (48th), Brazil (52nd), Mauritius (53rd), Bahrain (62nd), and Jordan (65th), have been the fastest innovation climbers.
The GII 2025 maps the contours of innovation across the world, showing us that the fastest-advancing economies in the GII are those that view innovation as a fundamental engine of resilience, growth and competitiveness. This year’s GII reveals both encouraging progress as well as challenges that still need to be addressed for countries to fully harness their innovation potential. It is a reminder that innovation ecosystems require support and nurturing through thoughtful policies, meaningful investments and cross-sector collaboration.
Global rankings
- Switzerland (Number 1 in 2024)
- Sweden (2)
- United States of America (3)
- Republic of Korea (6)
- Singapore (4)
- United Kingdom (5)
- Finland (7)
- Netherlands (Kingdom of the) (8)
- Denmark (10)
- China (11)
- Germany (9)
- Japan (13)
- France (12)
- Israel (15)
- Hong Kong, China (18)
- Estonia (16)
- Canada (14)
- Ireland (19)
- Austria (17)
- Norway (21)
In GII 2025, 17 low- and middle-income economies are performing above expectations for their level of development, with India and Viet Nam as longest-running innovation overperformers. Sub-Saharan Africa leads in the number of economies overperforming on innovation, with South Africa (61st), Senegal (89th) and Rwanda (104th) at the fore.
In addition to innovation rankings, the 2025 edition shows an uneven performance in leading indicators of future innovative activity.
