For the 14th year in a row, Switzerland continued its innovative advantage when it again ranked 1st in the Global Innovation Index (GII) published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. The index assesses world economies leading in global innovation from amongst 133 countries using some 80 different indicators to measure their overall strengths and weaknesses.

According to WIPO’s Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024, Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, Singapore, and the United Kingdom rank, in that order of the top 5, as the world’s most innovative economies. They also highlighted China, Türkiye, India, Vietnam, and the Philippines amongst the quickest gainers in the past decade.

Top 10 global rankings according to WIPO’s Global Innovation Index, 2024

1. Switzerland (number 1, rank in 2023)

2. Sweden (2)

3. United States of America (3)

4. Singapore (5)

5. United Kingdom (4)

6. Republic of Korea (10)

7. Finland (6)

8. Netherlands (7)

9. Germany (8)

10. Denmark (9)

The GII serves as a key resource for tracking global innovation trends, with the goal of helping business leaders and policymakers in harnessing human creativity to enhance lives, tackle common challenges, and serve as a tool for action for economies that utilize the GII into their agendas. Innovation is measured using criteria that include institutions, infrastructure, credit, investment, human capital, and research, amongst others. This was the 17th edition of the GII.

Switzerland ranked first for the 14th consecutive year in a row, taking the head ranking in such innovation pillars as “knowledge and technology outputs”, and as well “creative outputs” specifically. It also ranked in the top 5 for “human capital and research”, and “market“ and “business sophistication.”  

In contrast, Switzerland showed it had room for improvement in entrepreneurship policies and the Information and Communications Technology sector. Nonetheless, Switzerland’s strengths in high-tech manufacturing, university-industry collaboration, and knowledge workers are key areas it continues to excel in, allowing it to retain control of the top position in the global innovation landscape.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), as listed on its website, “is a United Nations agency that serves the world’s innovators and creators, ensuring that their ideas travel safely to the market and improve lives everywhere.” They do so by providing services that “enable creators, innovators and entrepreneurs to protect and promote their intellectual property across borders and acting as a form for addressing cutting-edge Intellectual Property issues.”

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