UK ranks fifth in WIPO GII 2024 list of world’s most innovative economies

Image source: WIPO Lobby, Emmanuel-Berrod

Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, Singapore and the United Kingdom are the world’s most-innovative economies, while China, Türkiye, India, Viet Nam and the Philippines are the fastest 10-year climbers, according to WIPO’s Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024.

However, the 2024 GII report identifies a major softening worldwide in leading indicators of future innovative activity, including a reversal of the 2020-2022 boom in innovation investments.

Amid higher interest rates, venture capital (VC) funding dropped by about 40 percent in 2023 and growth slipped in research and development (R&D) expenditures, while international patent filings and scientific publications fell.

The top 10 countries for innovation, according to the 2024 GII report, are (last year’s ranking in brackets):

1. Switzerland (Number 1 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 (Kingdom of the) (7)

9. Germany (8)

10. Denmark (9)

China has moved up one place to 11, with Hong Kong listed separately at 18, down from 17 last year.

The report is compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and independent nonpartisan research and educational body, The Portulans Institute.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang says: “In 2023, we saw a decline in R&D expenditures, a reduction in scientific publications, and a scaling back of venture capital investments to pre-pandemic levels. However, technological progress remained strong in 2023, particularly in health-related fields like genome sequencing, as well as in computing power and electric batteries. Technology adoption also deepened, especially in 5G, robotics, and electric vehicles. This year’s GII also reveals positive trends in key indicators, including a decline in global poverty and rises in labor productivity and life expectancy.”

Among the GII’s key findings:

✔️ Following a boom between 2020 and 2022, scientific publications, venture capital (VC) and international patent filings experienced a downturn in 2023, and research and development expenditures (R&D) slowed.

✔️ VC and scientific publications have declined sharply back to pre-pandemic levels, with a pronounced impact on emerging regions such as Latin America and Africa.

✔️ Reflecting a deteriorating climate for risk finance, the value of VC investments has been falling sharply from the exceptionally high levels of 2021, with a 36 percent drop in 2022 followed by a further 39 percent drop in 2023.

✔️ The number of VC deals has also decreased, experiencing a downturn of 9.5 percent in 2023.

✔️ International patent filings saw a decline of 1.8 percent in 2023, marking the first such decline since 2009.

✔️ Global R&D grew at a rate of 5 percent in 2022 – slightly down from 2021 – but is projected to slow to 3 percent in 2023 in real terms.

✔️ In 2023, spending by corporations representing the largest investors in R&D grew by around 6 percent in real terms. This lags the long-term growth rate for the last 10 years (around 8 percent) and is down from peaks between 10-15 percent between 2019–2021, and from pre-pandemic growth rates.

✔️ Technology continues to progress rapidly, particularly in health-related fields and computing power. Technology adoption is also growing, particularly in 5G – with close to 25 percent increase on coverage in 2022, robotics, and electric vehicles (EVs) – where the global stock of EVs increased by 54 percent in 2022.

✔️ However, the progress in green technologies in the last year has been slower than the average for the decade, highlighting the difficulty in reducing the energy consumption of supercomputers and maintaining the decrease in electric battery prices.