Three Nordic countries among ten most innovative economies

Sweden ranks number 2 on the index. Photo; Joshua Sortinu/Unsplash

Sweden, Finland and Denmark are among the world´s top ten most innovative economies according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025 ranking.

The top 10 most innovative economies in 2025 are Switzerland, followed by Sweden, USA, South-Korea, Singapore, UK, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark and China.

Finland (7), Denmark (9) follow Sweden (2) on the index. Photo: Johannes Jansson/norden.org

The remaining two Nordic countries, Norway and Iceland are respectively number 20 and 24.

The Global Innovation Index uses some 80 indicators, ranging from research and development (R&D) spending, venture capital (VC) deals, high-tech exports and intellectual property filings in evaluating nearly 140 world economies on their innovative performance.

Clusters

Stockholm ranks number 32 as a innovation cluster. Photo: Diego PH/Unsplash

However, the Nordic countries do not feature in the Top 10 of innovation clusters, which are innovation-driven cities or regions that unite top universities, researchers, inventors, venture capitalists and R&D firms.

Shenzen-Hong Kong- Guangzhou tops the list followed by Tokyo-Yokohama and San Jose-San Fransisco. Stockholm is number 32.