2025 Global Innovation Index: Switzerland Tops Rankings, China Enters Top 10 for First Time
As stated by WIPO’s 2025 Global Innovation Index (GII), Switzerland ranks first and is followed by Sweden, the United States of America, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore. The Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, and China (which ranked in the top 10 for the first time) complete the list. The GII uses over 80 factors to assess roughly 140 economies, including high-tech exports, venture capital, R&D levels, and IP registration statistics. Notably, among middle-income economies, many are showing compelling gains. China, India, Turkey, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Morocco are a few examples of economies that are performing better in terms of innovation.Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brazil, Mauritius, Bahrain, and Jordan are among the countries with highly successful economies.
A noteworthy finding is that investment in innovation is slowing. Global R&D growth is down to 2.9% in 2024 (down from 4.4% the previous year) and the lowest since the 2010 financial crisis and is projected to slow further to 2.3% in 2025. Corporations have also slowed R&D spending. Corporate R&D growth is now 1%, and inflation is a considerable obstacle. Some sectors continue to increase R&D (ICT, software, and pharmaceuticals), while other sectors (manufacturing and consumer goods) have cut back. Venture capital (VC) funding showed some mixed signals: overall deal value increased approximately 7.7% in 2024, largely driven by sizable deals occurring within artificial intelligence (AI) and within the United States, but the number of deals fell approximately 4.4%. Outside the stronger areas of investment focus (information communications technology (ICT) and AI) and regions (the United States), VC investment is retreating.
In terms of additional observations, international patent applications, filed via the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), saw a slight rebound up, approximately 0.5%, led by increases in the Republic of Korea, with declines seen in the United States, Japan, and Germany. Technology continues to make gains with increasingly better battery costs and improvements in supercomputing and genome sequencing, although there are signs of slowing technology adoption; for example, robotics and electrical vehicle adoption, for example, are lagging. Socioeconomic measures are improving, as shown by life expectancy, labor productivity, and poverty.
In looking at the world by regions, we note many economies improved in Southeast/East Asia & Oceania, and India continues to stand out in Central & Southern Asia. Newer signs of innovation momentum are seen in Northern Africa & Western Asia, while we have a number of overperformers in sub-Saharan Africa. Growth is noted in Latin America & the Caribbean; however, we also see imbalances between productivity and consumption (the so-called input-output gap). Northern America and Europe retain many of the highest performers but show some competitiveness challenges.
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