Global leaders in innovation, 2026\u00a0\u00a0Key takeaways1. In 2025, innovation investments largely positive again after the 2023 downturn, but growth mostly below trend<\/p>\n
\u2191 Overall picture positive in 2025: Across all four parts of the GII Global Innovation Tracker results are more uniformly positive than in recent editions; only three indicators moved in a less favorable direction: venture capital (VC) deal counts, renewable energy costs and global temperatures, while all other indicators moved in a favorable direction; four grew faster than the 10-year trend: scientific publications, VC deal values, cancer radiotherapy availability and labor productivity. Growth remained below the decade average elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u2191 Scientific publications hit a new global record: Global research output surpassed 2.4\u00a0million articles last year, growing 6.9\u00a0percent above its long-run trend.<\/p>\n
\u2197 Global R&D growth solid, China edges ahead of the United States: Global R&D expenditure grew by 4.7\u00a0percent in real terms in 2024, when China\u2019s total R&D spending moved slightly ahead of the United States. The rest of the world is projected to grow by around 2\u00a0percent, with R&D capacity spreading to middle-income economies such as Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Viet Nam.<\/p>\n
Global R&D intensity is holding close to 2\u00a0percent of GDP, up from 1.2\u00a0percent three decades ago, though its rise has plateaued. Global R&D is projected to have moderated to 3.3\u00a0percent in 2025 and be 3.6\u00a0percent in 2026, above GDP growth.<\/p>\n
\u2197 Corporate R&D hits a record: Corporate R&D expenditure among the world\u2019s top spenders stood at a record USD\u00a01.5\u00a0trillion last year, growing 5.8 percent in real terms from 2024. This expansion is increasingly driven by software and artificial intelligence (AI)-intensive firms, though aerospace and defense R&D rose sharply as well.<\/p>\n
\u2198 Venture capital (VC) values recover, but activity narrows: VC deal values increased by around 28\u00a0percent to USD\u00a0510\u00a0billion last year, the strongest annual gain since 2021. AI accounted for 53 percent of global VC deal value in 2025, surging to 77 percent in the first half of 2026. However, deal counts fell by 1.4\u00a0percent, a fourth consecutive annual decline. Still, VC is developing beyond the known hubs: African startups raised about USD\u00a03.2\u00a0billion last year, up some 40\u00a0percent on 2024.<\/p>\n
\u2197 International patent filings continue to expand, but below trend: Patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) increased by 0.7\u00a0percent, a second consecutive year of moderate growth.<\/p>\n
2. Technological progress: continued advances at a slower pace<\/p>\n
Technology advanced on almost every front in 2025, though at a slower pace than over the past decade.<\/p>\n
Supercomputing efficiency and transistor counts on frontier chips both rose, though below their long-run rates.<\/p>\n
The average global battery price fell to a record low of USD\u00a0108 per\u00a0kWh, with China lowest at USD\u00a084, while solar and wind power costs rose for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n
Genome sequencing costs fell by around 12\u00a0percent, in line with the decade trend, and drug approvals increased again, led by oncology and immunology, though below the long-run average.<\/p>\n
3. Technology adoption: wider diffusion with uneven access<\/p>\n
Technology adoption widened across every indicator in 2025, but each grew below its long-run trend; a sign that diffusion is slowing.<\/p>\n
The global EV stock reached 75\u00a0million, electric cars made up about a quarter of new car sales, and the high-speed rail network reached 67,723\u00a0km, led by China, with momentum building in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.<\/p>\n
5G networks now reach 55\u00a0percent of the global population, though access is uneven, and robot deployment rose around 9\u00a0percent to 4.7\u00a0million in 2024, helped by middle-income economies such as India, Mexico and Viet Nam.<\/p>\n
Cancer radiotherapy availability continued to improve, but coverage remains limited in low-income economies.<\/p>\n
4. Socioeconomic impact: social gains continue, climate pressures persist<\/p>\n
Innovation delivered welfare gains in 2025, even as climate pressures persist.<\/p>\n
Labor productivity rose 2.7\u00a0percent, now above its 10-year trend; a key question is whether AI-related investment will trigger wider productivity gains or stay confined to a few firms.<\/p>\n
The share of the global population living below USD\u00a03 per day fell to about 10\u00a0percent, and life expectancy reached 73.5\u00a0years as the post-pandemic recovery takes hold.<\/p>\n
Global temperatures reached the second highest level on record, with the first half of 2026 running even warmer.<\/p>\n
5. In a turbulent year, the innovation frontier holds: Switzerland, Sweden and the United States lead again<\/p>\n
Switzerland (1st, for a 16th consecutive year), Sweden (2nd) and the United States (3rd) remain the world\u2019s top three innovation economies, with the Republic of Korea (4th) and Singapore (5th) close behind. No new economy enters the top\u00a015.<\/p>\n
Europe again accounts for the largest share of the top innovation economies, claiming 14 of the top\u00a025. The Kingdom of the Netherlands moves up to 7th and Austria to 18th.<\/p>\n
Asia takes five places: China (10th) remains the only middle-income economy among the leaders, Japan stays 12th and Hong Kong, China rises to 14th.<\/p>\n
Beneath the continuity there is movement: the United Arab Emirates enters the top 25, while Canada (16th), Australia (20th) and New Zealand (24th) regain ground. Their recoveries share a pattern: mature innovation systems strengthening their academic base, university\u2013industry links and research investment.<\/p>\n
6. A few other economies reach key milestones including Portugal, Latvia, Kuwait and Costa Rica; Bhutan joins the GII<\/p>\n
Portugal (30th) reaches the top\u00a030.<\/p>\n
Lithuania moves up to 32nd and Latvia enters the top\u00a040 (40th).<\/p>\n
Kuwait (62nd) and Costa Rica (70th) advance into the top\u00a070, and Bhutan enters the GII, at 74th. Its entry follows a multi-year collaboration with WIPO on improving the availability of innovation indicators.<\/p>\n
7. Middle-income economies keep climbing, but an innovation glass ceiling is becoming more apparent<\/p>\n
China (10th), India (38th), Viet Nam (43rd), T\u00fcrkiye (45th), the Philippines (52nd), Morocco (54th) and Indonesia (55th) have advanced most among middle-income economies since 2013. Morocco reaches its best rank ever; Viet Nam returns to its pre-pandemic level.<\/p>\n
The innovation outputs of these emerging economies now often exceed inputs: China ranks 5th in outputs against 22nd in inputs, India 25th against 49th and Viet Nam 35th against 54th.<\/p>\n
A benchmarking against high-income and middle-income medians points to selective rather than uniform convergence. Convergence has been easiest in production and exports, startup finance and intellectual property, and hardest in the knowledge base and R&D, where research capacity builds slowly. The long-term climbers have not yet reached high-income performance across the entire innovation system. China, the exception, reaches high-income levels in 21 of 25 benchmarked indicators.<\/p>\n
The routes differ: India climbs through digital services and venture capital, leading the world in ICT services exports; Viet Nam and the Philippines through high-tech manufacturing and trade, while still trailing in domestic invention; T\u00fcrkiye through industrial design and branding; and Indonesia through its large domestic market and startup finance, on a still thin R&D base of around 0.3\u00a0percent of GDP.<\/p>\n
The next stage of catch-up will depend on whether these strengths can be complemented by deeper research systems, broader knowledge creation and stronger connections across the innovation ecosystem.<\/p>\n
8. Since 2019, a newer wave of climbers has gathered pace, powered by investment, digital transformation and services<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia (42nd), Qatar (47th), Mauritius (50th), Brazil (53rd), Jordan (60th) and Bahrain (64th) recorded some of the strongest advances since 2019 among the top 70.<\/p>\n
The Gulf economies climb through investment in digital infrastructure, finance and talent as part of state-led diversification: Saudi Arabia leads the world in ICT use, and Riyadh enters the top\u00a0100 innovation clusters; Qatar ranks 1st in tertiary inbound mobility; Bahrain 1st in ICT access, with one of the world\u2019s best business environments; and Jordan takes a knowledge-intensive route, ranking 1st in scientific articles.<\/p>\n
Mauritius shows how a small economy can diversify through services, ranking 6th both in cultural and creative services exports and in VC investors.<\/p>\n
Brazil pairs Latin America\u2019s deepest science and R&D base with strong trademark activity and late-stage VC, anchored by S\u00e3o Paulo among the top-100 innovation clusters.<\/p>\n
The test for this second group is similar: to avoid a plateau by turning recent gains into broader, sustained innovation performance.<\/p>\n
9. Who converts inputs into outputs?<\/p>\n
China is the most prominent outlier with a high ratio of outputs to inputs, even compared with high-income economies.<\/p>\n
Several middle-income economies do more with less: Morocco ranks 76th in inputs, but 46th in outputs, with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mexico, Tunisia, T\u00fcrkiye and Viet Nam showing similar patterns, and Madagascar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe also producing more than their inputs would suggest.<\/p>\n
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates show the reverse: strong institutional, infrastructure and investment foundations, with conversion into results the necessary next step.<\/p>\n
10. Switzerland, China, India and Rwanda lead their income groups; momentum in Africa<\/p>\n
Malaysia (34th), Viet Nam (43rd), Thailand (44th) and T\u00fcrkiye (45th) reinforce the growing presence of middle-income economies in the upper half of the ranking.<\/p>\n
In Europe, 12\u00a0economies improve, including Italy (27th) and Spain (28th); the region\u2019s central challenge, echoed in competitiveness debates, is to convert its research and industrial strengths into fast-growing firms, scaleup finance and productivity growth.<\/p>\n
Chile (51st) leads Latin America and the Caribbean, ahead of Brazil (53rd), Mexico (65th), Uruguay (66th) and Costa Rica (70th). Assets remain concentrated in a few economies, and research, entrepreneurship and market access are not yet connected strongly enough to form a regional engine.<\/p>\n
India leads Central and Southern Asia, ahead of Kazakhstan (73rd) and Bhutan (74th). The region consolidates its lead over Latin America and the Caribbean on the strength of its innovation outputs.<\/p>\n
Morocco leads a North African rise, pairing industrial upgrading with the business use of intangible assets, from industrial designs to trademarks and high-tech manufacturing. Tunisia builds on human capital and science, ranking 1st in science and engineering graduates; Egypt combines a large domestic market, a substantial scientific base and R&D spending above 1\u00a0percent of GDP; Algeria invests in education at among the highest rates worldwide.<\/p>\n
Sub-Saharan Africa shows some of the year\u2019s most encouraging momentum: Mauritius reaches the top\u00a050; South Africa marks nine consecutive years of overperformance; Rwanda posts the strongest low-income advance, backed by strong institutions (26th); and Botswana and Kenya move up on growing use of trademarks, utility models and industrial designs, alongside a growing VC layer around selected hubs.<\/p>\n
11. New green-field R&D and high-tech FDI indicator: investment is highly concentrated, but middle-income magnets emerge<\/p>\n
The GII 2026 introduces a green-field R&D and high-tech FDI indicator, based on announced investment projects. Firms announced close to 6,000 such projects in 2025, roughly one in three of all green-field projects worldwide.<\/p>\n
Investment is concentrated: the top\u00a010 destinations attracted 58\u00a0percent of projects, led by the United States, India and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
Sixteen economies are global investment hubs, above the world average on both inflows and outflows; China and India are the middle-income economies among them. Fourteen investment magnets, 10 of them middle-income, attract far more than they invest abroad, with Mexico the strongest.<\/p>\n
12. Twenty-one economies innovate above their level of development, led by India and Viet Nam for a 16th year<\/p>\n
The GII 2026 identifies 21 innovation overperformers, four more than in 2025. India and Viet Nam remain the longest-standing, at 16 consecutive years; the Republic of Moldova returns with 15 appearances; Rwanda and Ukraine count 14 each.<\/p>\n
Bhutan, Mozambique and Pakistan also overperform.<\/p>\n
Ten of the 21 are lower middle-income economies; Sub-Saharan Africa hosts the largest number (seven), and Brazil remains the only overperformer in Latin America and the Caribbean, for a sixth consecutive year.<\/p>\n
Thirty-nine economies perform below expectations, most in Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
Pillar imbalances often mark assets rather than weaknesses: Rwanda ranks 26th in Institutions, Algeria 39th in Human capital and research and Cambodia 31st in Market sophistication, all well above their overall ranks; the task is to build channels that turn these strengths into broader performance.<\/p>\n
The wider lesson: innovation success depends not only on resources, but on how effectively economies connect research, firms, finance, skills, institutions and markets into a functioning ecosystem.<\/p>\n
The results point to four conclusions: the innovation frontier is persistent but not frozen; middle-income catch-up is real, but faces a glass ceiling that so far only China has broken; innovation momentum is spreading through distinct regional pathways; and income alone does not determine innovation performance.<\/p>\n
The policy implication is system coherence: the priority is not to raise inputs or target a higher rank, but to strengthen the paths through which institutions, skills, infrastructure, finance, firms and creative capabilities reinforce one another.<\/p>\n
13. The world\u2019s top innovation clusters span six out of the seven continents, with Shenzhen\u2013Hong Kong\u2013Guangzhou leading globally for a second year<\/p>\n
Shenzhen\u2013Hong Kong\u2013Guangzhou (China and Hong Kong, China) again tops the GII top 100 innovation cluster ranking, followed by Tokyo\u2013Yokohama (Japan), San Jose\u2013San Francisco (United States), Beijing (China), and Seoul (Republic of Korea). All five top clusters held their positions from last year, underscoring the stability at the top of the ranking.<\/p>\n