The Global Innovations Index (GII) is published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. It is derived from 80 indicators measuring innovation inputs and outputs. The current edition covers 139 countries and 100 innovation clusters.
The Index shows that the leading centres of global innovation are in East Asia, Europe, and the United States. The top five countries for innovation are Switzerland, Sweden, USA, South Korea, rising six places since 2023, and Singapore. Countries that have risen significantly over the last six years include Morocco, Philippines, Viet Nam, Mauritius, and Saudi Arabia.
The Index emphasises the vital role of universities. The 2025 edition has a new indicator, university-industry and international engagement, which is based on Times Higher Education (THE) data on international collaboration and linkages with industry for the top five universities in each country. The top five countries according to this indicator are Hong Kong, Netherlands, Singapore, Austria, and Switzerland.
The most interesting metric is innovation clusters, which are based on published patent applications, authorship of scientific articles, and venture capital start-ups. The world’s leading innovation cluster is Shenzhen – Hong Kong – Guangzhou, followed by Tokyo-Yokohama, San Jose-San Francisco, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai-Suzhou, New York City, London, Boston-Cambridge, and Los Angles.
Clusters with the most scientific publications are almost entirely Chinese, while those that excel for patents include US and Japanese clusters and the US leads for venture capital with London in third place.
Source:
WIPO