These Are The World’s Most Innovative Countries

The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), ranks 133 economies based on their innovation capabilities and performance. This year’s report highlights shifts in global innovation leadership, with a focus on emerging economies challenging traditional leaders.

To summarize the results of this year’s GII, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualized each economy’s score using a global heatmap. Lower scores are shown as darker shades of blue, transitioning to green and then yellow as score increases.

Methodology

The GII measures each economy based on seven underlying innovation pillars, which altogether comprise 78 indicators. These are summarized in the table below:

The overall GII scores (which are what we’ve shown in the graphic above) are based on the average scores from these seven pillars.

Most Innovative Countries in 2024

The following table includes all of the data we used to create this graphic. For the 14th consecutive year, Switzerland was named the world’s most innovative country.

Rank
Name
Score
1
🇨🇭 Switzerland
67.5
2
🇸🇪 Sweden
64.5
3
🇺🇸 U.S.
62.4
4
🇸🇬 Singapore
61.2
5
🇬🇧 UK
61
6
🇰🇷 South Korea
60.9
7
🇫🇮 Finland
59.4
8
🇳🇱 Netherlands
58.8
9
🇩🇪 Germany
58.1
10
🇩🇰 Denmark
57.1
11
🇨🇳 China
56.3
12
🇫🇷 France
55.4
13
🇯🇵 Japan
54.1
14
🇨🇦 Canada
52.9
15
🇮🇱 Israel
52.7
16
🇪🇪 Estonia
52.3
17
🇦🇹 Austria
50.3
18
🇭🇰 Hong Kong
50.1
19
🇮🇪 Ireland
50
20
🇱🇺 Luxembourg
49.1
21
🇳🇴 Norway
49.1
22
🇮🇸 Iceland
48.5
23
🇦🇺 Australia
48.1
24
🇧🇪 Belgium
47.7
25
🇳🇿 New Zealand
45.9
26
🇮🇹 Italy
45.3
27
🇨🇾 Cyprus
45.1
28
🇪🇸 Spain
44.9
29
🇲🇹 Malta
44.8
30
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
44
31
🇵🇹 Portugal
43.7
32
🇦🇪 UAE
42.8
33
🇲🇾 Malaysia
40.5
34
🇸🇮 Slovenia
40.2
35
🇱🇹 Lithuania
40.1
36
🇭🇺 Hungary
39.6
37
🇹🇷 Türkiye
39
38
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
38.5
39
🇮🇳 India
38.3
40
🇵🇱 Poland
37
41
🇹🇭 Thailand
36.9
42
🇱🇻 Latvia
36.4
43
🇭🇷 Croatia
36.3
44
🇻🇳 Viet Nam
36.2
45
🇬🇷 Greece
36.2
46
🇸🇰 Slovakia
34.3
47
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
33.9
48
🇷🇴 Romania
33.4
49
🇶🇦 Qatar
32.9
50
🇧🇷 Brazil
32.7
51
🇨🇱 Chile
32.6
52
🇷🇸 Serbia
32.3
53
🇵🇭 Philippines
31.1
54
🇮🇩 Indonesia
30.6
55
🇲🇺 Mauritius
30.6
56
🇲🇽 Mexico
30.4
57
🇬🇪 Georgia
30.4
58
🇲🇰 North Macedonia
29.9
59
🇷🇺 Russia
29.7
60
🇺🇦 Ukraine
29.5
61
🇨🇴 Colombia
29.2
62
🇺🇾 Uruguay
29.1
63
🇦🇲 Armenia
29
64
🇮🇷 Iran
28.9
65
🇲🇪 Montenegro
28.9
66
🇲🇦 Morocco
28.8
67
🇲🇳 Mongolia
28.7
68
🇲🇩 Moldova
28.7
69
🇿🇦 South Africa
28.3
70
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
28.3
71
🇰🇼 Kuwait
28.1
72
🇧🇭 Bahrain
27.6
73
🇯🇴 Jordan
27.5
74
🇴🇲 Oman
27.1
75
🇵🇪 Peru
26.7
76
🇦🇷 Argentina
26.4
77
🇧🇧 Barbados
26.1
78
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan
25.7
79
🇯🇲 Jamaica
25.7
80
🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina
25.5
81
🇹🇳 Tunisia
25.4
82
🇵🇦 Panama
24.7
83
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
24.7
84
🇦🇱 Albania
24.5
85
🇧🇾 Belarus
24.2
86
🇪🇬 Egypt
23.7
87
🇧🇼 Botswana
23.1
88
🇧🇳 Brunei Darussalam
22.8
89
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
22.6
90
🇨🇻 Cabo Verde
22.3
91
🇵🇰 Pakistan
22
92
🇸🇳 Senegal
22
93
🇵🇾 Paraguay
21.9
94
🇱🇧 Lebanon
21.5
95
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan
21.3
96
🇰🇪 Kenya
21
97
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
20.8
98
🇸🇻 El Salvador
20.6
99
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan
20.4
100
🇧🇴 Bolivia
20.2
101
🇬🇭 Ghana
20
102
🇳🇦 Namibia
20
103
🇰🇭 Cambodia
19.9
104
🇷🇼 Rwanda
19.7
105
🇪🇨 Ecuador
19.3
106
🇧🇩 Bangladesh
19.1
107
🇹🇯 Tajikistan
18.6
108
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
18.4
109
🇳🇵 Nepal
18.1
110
🇲🇬 Madagascar
17.9
111
🇱🇦 Laos
17.8
112
🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire
17.5
113
🇳🇬 Nigeria
17.1
114
🇭🇳 Honduras
16.7
115
🇩🇿 Algeria
16.2
116
🇿🇲 Zambia
15.7
117
🇹🇬 Togo
15.6
118
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
15.6
119
🇧🇯 Benin
15.4
120
🇹🇿 Tanzania
15.3
121
🇺🇬 Uganda
14.9
122
🇬🇹 Guatemala
14.6
123
🇨🇲 Cameroon
14.4
124
🇳🇮 Nicaragua
14
125
🇲🇲 Myanmar
13.8
126
🇲🇷 Mauritania
13.2
127
🇧🇮 Burundi
13.2
128
🇲🇿 Mozambique
13.1
129
🇧🇫 Burkina Faso
12.8
130
🇪🇹 Ethiopia
12.3
131
🇲🇱 Mali
11.8
132
🇳🇪 Niger
11.2
133
🇦🇴 Angola
10.2

Similar to last year, the U.S. takes third place in the GII. It ranked the highest in Market Sophistication (#1) and Business Sophistication (#2), but its overall score was dragged down by its lower rank in Infrastructure (#30).

A key theme of this year’s GII is innovation overperformers, which are countries that perform above expectation relative to their level of development.

The top three in this regard are India, Moldova, and Vietnam. All three of these economies have overperformed over the past 14 years since 2011.

Other Key Takeaways

The GII 2024 also provides insight into the current state of global innovation. Here are some of the highlights:

Technological progress: The rate of progress in green technologies is lagging behind average growth for the decade. A key challenge here is reducing the energy consumption of supercomputers.

Technology adoption: 5G, robotics, and electric vehicles are all seeing increased penetration levels.

Socioeconomic impact: The GII reports mixed progress, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, levels of poverty are higher than those recorded in 2018, while life expectancy remains at 2015 levels.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this ranking of the top companies by number of AI patents granted on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.