Global Innovation Index 2017: Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, USA, UK Top Annual Ranking
Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the USA and the UK are the world’s most- innovative countries, while a group of nations including India, Kenya, and Viet Nam are outperforming their development- level peers, according to the Global Innovation Index 2017 coauthored by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Key findings show the rise of India as an emerging innovation center in Asia, high innovation performance in Sub-Saharan Africa relative to development and an opportunity to improve innovation capacity in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Each year, the GII surveys some 130 economies using dozens of metrics, from patent filings to education spending providing decision makers a high-level look at the innovative activity that increasingly drives economic and social growth. In a new feature for the GII, a special section looks at “invention hotspots” around the globe that show the highest density of inventors listed in international patent applications.
Now in its tenth edition, the GII 2017 notes a continued gap in innovative capacity between developed and developing nations and lackluster growth rates for research and development (R&D) activities, both at the government and corporate levels.
“Innovation is the engine of economic growth in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, but more investment is needed to help boost human creativity and economic output,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “Innovation can help transform the current economic upswing into longer-term growth.”
See the full Global Innovation Index for 2017
