The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022

The 15th edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) was released today. Published since 2007, the GII has been a useful source of analysis for measuring innovation. See TechieKat’s reports on GII 2021 here and GII 2020 here.

The GII 2022 was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in partnership with the Portulans Institute and with the support of its corporate partners.

The GII 2022 contains the latest global innovation ranking of 132 economies, relying on 81 indicators. The theme of this year’s report is “What is the future of innovation-driven growth?”.

The GII 2022 also outlines the positive effects of two novel innovation waves, although it emphasizes that such effects would take some time to be realized:

1. A digital age innovation wave built on supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and automation. Effect: making ample productivity impacts across all sectors and fields of scientific research.
2. A Deep Science innovation wave built on breakthroughs in biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, new materials, and other sciences. Effect: revolutionizing innovations in health, food, environment, and mobility (four fields of key importance to society).

WIPO shared some findings in the press release published today:

• “[R]esearch and development (R&D) and other investments that drive worldwide innovative activity continued to boom in 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The top global corporate R&D spenders increased their R&D expenditure by almost 10 percent to over USD 900 billion in 2021, higher than in 2019 before the pandemic.
• This increase was primarily driven by four industries: ICT hardware and electrical equipment; Software and ICT services; pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; and construction and industrial metals.
• Government budget allocations for the top R&D spending economies showed strong growth in 2020. For 2021 government R&D budgets, the picture was more varied, with spending growing in the Republic of Korea and Germany but falling in the US and Japan.
• Venture capital (VC) deals exploded by 46 percent in 2021, recording levels comparable to the internet boom years of the late 1990s.
• Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa regions witnessing the strongest VC growth”.

Click on the image to zoom in.

Some highlights contained in the GII 2022 report are:

• Canada advanced to 15th place in the GII rank, topping “in venture capital recipients, joint ventures and strategic alliance deals and computer software spending”.
• The United States of America climbed to second place, leading in “innovation indicators, including global corporate R&D investors, venture capital investors, the quality of its universities, the quality and impact of its scientific publications, and the value of corporate Intangible asset intensity”.
• Eight economies from Latin America and the Caribbean region advanced in the rankings. Chile, Brazil, and Mexico rank in the top 60.
• Europe continues to host the largest number of innovation leaders ranking among the top 25.
• Switzerland has topped the ranking for the last 12 years and led “in indicators such as researchers, R&D expenditures and knowledge-intensive employment”.
• Sweden led “in indicators such as researchers, R&D expenditures and knowledge-intensive employment”.
• India continues to be the world leader in the indicator of ICT services exports.
• Israel leads in females employed with advanced degrees, venture capital deals and PCT applications filed.
• Türkiye made it to the top 40 and ranked fourth in intangible assets.
• South Africa tops the ranking “in market capitalization”, while Kenya holds “the record of outperformer for twelve consecutive years”.
• Indonesia led worldwide “in entrepreneurship policies and culture”, Viet Nam “in high-tech imports, and the Philippines in high-tech exports”.

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The top ten of the global innovation ranking of GII 2022 are:

1. Switzerland (No. 1 in 2021)

2. United States of America (No. 3 in 2021)

3. Sweden (No. 2 in 2021)

4. United Kingdom (No. 4 in 2021)

5. Netherlands (No. 6 in 2021)

6. Republic of Korea (No. 5 in 2021)

7. Singapore (No. 8 in 2021)

8. Germany (No. 10 in 2021)

9. Finland (No. 7 in 2021)

10. Denmark (No.9 in 2021)

The GII 2022 regional innovation leaders for Northern America (NAC) are:

1. United States of America (GII rank: 2)

2. Canada (GII rank: 15)

The top five GII 2022 regional innovation leaders for Latin America and the Caribbean (LCN) are:

1. Chile (GII rank: 50)

2. Brazil (GII rank: 54)

3. Mexico (GII rank: 58)

4. Colombia (GII rank: 63)

5. Uruguay (GII rank: 64)

The top five GII 2022 regional innovation leaders for Europe (EUR) are:

1. Switzerland (GII rank: 1)

2. Sweden (GII rank: 3)

3. United Kingdom (GII rank: 4)

4. Netherlands (GII rank: 5)

5. Germany (GII rank: 8)

The top five GII 2022 regional innovation leaders for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSF) are:

1. Mauritius (GII rank: 45)

2. South Africa (GII rank: 61)

3. Botswana (GII rank: 86)

4. Kenya (GII rank: 88)

5. Ghana (GII rank: 95)

The top five GII 2022 regional innovation leaders for Northern Africa and Western Asia (NAWA) are:

1. Israel (GII rank: 16)

2. Cyprus (GII rank: 27)

3. United Arab Emirates (GII rank: 31)

4. Türkiye (GII rank: 37)

5. Saudi Arabia (GII rank: 51)

The top five GII 2022 regional innovation leaders for Central and Southern Asia (CSA) are:

1. India (GII rank: 40)

2. Islamic Republic of Iran (GII rank: 53)

3. Uzbekistan (GII rank: 82)

4. Kazakhstan (GII rank: 83)

5. Sri Lanka (GII rank: 85)

The top five GII 2022 regional innovation leaders for South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania (SEAO) are:

1. Republic of Korea (GII rank: 6)

2. Singapore (GII rank: 7)

3. China (GII rank: 11)

4. Japan (GII rank: 13)

5. Hong Kong, China (GII rank: 14)

Review here the GII 2022 and here the ranking for all regions. Meanwhile, you can watch here the virtual press conference comprising the highlights of the GII report.

More findings of the GII 2022 regional innovation leaders for Latin America and the Caribbean by this Kat can be reviewed here (in Spanish).

Previous GII editions can be reviewed on the dedicated WIPO’s web page and website for the Global Innovation Index.

Credits:

The first image is by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

The second and third images are Figure 2 - Government budget allocations for R&D, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and Figure 9 - Movement in the GII, top 10, 2018–2022, under a CC BY 4.0 license. WIPO (2022). Global Innovation Index 2022: What is the future of innovation-driven growth? Geneva: WIPO. DOI 10.34667/tind.46596