Global Innovation Index

Editions

How the ranking works

The GII averages two sub-indices: an Innovation Input Sub-Index (institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, business sophistication) and an Innovation Output Sub-Index (knowledge and technology outputs, creative outputs). Each pillar is built from sub-pillars and roughly 80 indicators, mostly hard data from international sources (R&D spending, venture capital deals, patent and trademark filings, high-tech exports, education statistics) plus a small number of survey-based and composite indicators. Scores run from 0 to 100 since 2011.

The indicator set changes most years (for example, WIPO says GII 2025 added high-speed rail under technology adoption), and economy coverage depends on data availability, so year-to-year rank changes mix real movement with method and coverage effects. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre publishes an annual statistical audit of the index as an appendix to the report.

Ranked positions: Each item has a position (1, 2, 3), with ties allowed. Economies cannot apply or pay to be ranked; WIPO includes every economy that meets its data-coverage threshold. Governments do engage with WIPO on data and some fund national GII events, but no inclusion fee exists.

Read the publisher’s methodology

How far to trust it

Superscout grades every ranking on six criteria, each scored 0 to 2. Global Innovation Index scores 11 of 12, grade A.

Transparency 2/2

Full indicator list, weights, sources and economy profiles are published.

Independence 2/2

UN agency publisher; census coverage with no fees.

Evidence 2/2

Predominantly hard statistical data, with a minority of survey inputs.

Stability 1/2

Framework stable since 2011 but indicators and coverage are revised most editions; break in 2011.

Coverage 2/2

Covers essentially all economies with sufficient data (126 to 143 per edition).

Track record 2/2

18 editions since 2007.

History

Soumitra Dutta created the index at INSEAD, with the first edition published in 2007 together with World Business magazine; the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 editions were published by INSEAD with the Confederation of Indian Industry and used a 1 to 7 style scale. From 2011 WIPO joined as co-publisher and the framework moved to a 0 to 100 score; Cornell University co-published through 2021. WIPO has been the sole publisher since 2022, working with the Portulans Institute and other partners.

Switzerland has ranked first every year since 2011. Early editions were led by the United States (2007, 2008-2009) and Iceland (2009-2010). Coverage peaked at 143 economies in 2014 and has been between 126 and 139 since 2016.

How it is received

Governments treat the GII as a policy benchmark: Wikipedia's article on the index cites national plans in the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia and Viet Nam that reference it, and economies such as India publicize their rank each year. The JRC statistical audit gives the index a degree of external methodological review uncommon among country rankings.

Critics focus on construction choices. A 2023 paper by Alqararah in the Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship argues that the weighting scheme is not transparent and that simple arithmetic averaging ignores differences in indicator importance, finding that mid-table ranks are far less stable under alternative methods than the top and bottom. Prateek Surisetti, writing on SpicyIP in 2018, criticized the use of soft survey data and indicators with a tenuous link to innovation, such as ease of paying taxes.

Open questions

Facts not verified yet. They stay visible so they are not mistaken for settled facts.

• GII 2026 is scheduled for release on 2026-09-29 (WIPO save-the-date page); not yet published as of 2026-09-23. Register it after release.
• GII 2007 exact publication date not found (year only); the areppim source header says 134 countries but lists 107, and no primary INSEAD/World Business copy was reachable.
• GII 2023 overall scores for ranks 75 to 132, GII 2022 and GII 2020 overall scores, and GII 2012 scores for Hong Kong and Ireland were not reliably extracted; ranks are loaded.
• 2024 and 2025 entries come from the Wikipedia table; not cross-checked row by row against WIPO's data explorer.
• Exact co-publisher roster by year (Cornell from which edition; Portulans Institute role after 2021) not verified against each report cover.