(Publ. 5 OCT 2022) Sweden is still among the top countries together with Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands as the world’s most-innovative economies, according to WIPO’s 2022 Global Innovation Index (GII), with China on the threshold of the top 10.

“This year’s GII finds that innovation is at a crossroads as we emerge from the pandemic. While innovation investments surged in 2020 and 2021, the outlook for 2022 is clouded not just by global uncertainties but continued underperformance in innovation-driven productivity. This is why we need to pay more attention to not just investing in innovation, but how it translates into economic and social impact. Quality and value will become as critical to success as quantity and scale”, says WIPO Director General Daren Tang

In its annual ranking of the world’s economies on innovation capacity and output, the GII shows some key changes in the top 15 of the ranking, with the United States climbing to the 2nd position, the Netherlands reaching the 5th position, Singapore reaching 7th, Germany reaching 8th and China up one place to 11th and on the doorstep of the top 10.

Canada is back among the top 15 global innovators (15th). Türkiye (37th) and India (40th) enter the top 40 for the first time. Beyond these, Viet Nam (48), the Islamic Republic of Iran (53rd) and the Philippines (59th) are the middle-income economies with the fastest innovation performance growth to-date.

In its special GII 2022 theme chapter “What is the future of innovation-driven growth”, the GII also finds that productivity growth – normally spurred by increased innovation – has in fact stagnated. However, with more careful and attentive nurturing of innovation ecosystems, a new era of innovation-driven growth led by Digital Age and Deep Science innovation waves could take off.

The full top 10-list can be found below, with each country’s placement from 2021 in parentheses. The world’s 10 most innovative countries 2022:

1 Switzerland (Number 1 in 2021)
2 United States (3)
3 Sweden (2)
4 United Kingdom (4)
5 Netherlands (6)
6 Republic of Korea (5)
7 Singapore (8)
8 Germany (10)
9 Finland (7)
10 Denmark (9)

About Global Innovation Index
The 2021 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) presents the latest global innovation ranking of 132 economies, relying on 81 different indicators.

Global Innovation Index 2022 (PDF)>
Global Innovation Index 2022 (Press Release)>