Economic Growth

These are the world’s most innovative economies

A 12-inch wafer is displayed at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in Xinchu January 9, 2007. TSMC, the world's top contract chip maker, posted an 18.4 percent fall in December sales on January 10, hurt by clients' unwanted stockpiles, but a recovery looms as a new crop of electronics devices hit store shelves. Picture taken January 9, 2007.  REUTERS/Richard Chung (TAIWAN) - RTR1L1ID

These are the Global Innovation Index 2016’s most innovative economies Image: REUTERS/Richard Chung

Joe Myers
Writer, Forum Agenda
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Economic Growth?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Innovation is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Innovation

Switzerland has held onto its title as the world’s most innovative economy in the latest Global Innovation Index.

The 2016 index, produced by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD, assesses the innovation performance of 128 global economies. This year is notable for China’s breakthrough into the top 25. It marks the first time a middle-income country has taken a place among highly-developed economies in the survey’s 9-year history.

The top 10
 These are the world's most innovative countries

Switzerland claims the top spot as the world’s most innovative economy – a position it has held for six years. The European nation scores highly on a range of indices, from government effectiveness to business sophistication, and creative goods and services.

Sweden climbs one place to take second, swapping places with the United Kingdom. It scored highly on infrastructure, human capital and research.

An all-European top 3 is completed by the United Kingdom. Like Sweden, it scored highly for infrastructure, as well as market sophistication and creative outputs.

The rise of China

For the first time since the index started, China takes a place in the top 25, rising from 29th last year.

The report attributes this to improved performance, as well as methodological changes in the index. However, the authors highlight the continuing “innovation divide” between the developed and developing world. The majority of innovative activity is concentrated in high-income economies and a few middle-income economies, including China, India and South Africa.

However, there is good news, with several African economies named “innovation achievers”. They include countries like Kenya, Madagascar and Rwanda, and were found to perform at least “10% higher than their peers for their level of GDP”.

The importance of innovation

Innovation remains a key driver of economic growth, as highlighted by both the Global Innovation Index and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report.

Innovation is one of the 12 pillars of competitiveness in the Forum’s report, and it looks set to play an ever more important role, says Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, one of the economists behind the report.

“In the future, a country’s socio-economic progress will be increasingly determined by its ability to innovate and adapt quickly to new environments. Scientific and technological research and development, creativity, new business ideas and the ability to implement new business models will also increasingly determine a country’s success.”

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

A decade of slow growth? The World Bank’s chief economist on the global economic outlook

Linda Lacina and Ian Shine

September 25, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum