Switzerland Remains the Most Innovative Country in the World
Published: Thursday, Sep 26th 2024, 12:00
Updated At: Thursday, Sep 26th 2024, 12:00
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According to a study by the United Nations (UN), Switzerland is once again the most innovative country in the world. It has once again defended its top position in the 2024 innovation country comparison ahead of Sweden and the USA.
This means that Switzerland remains the perennial world champion: it has now achieved the top spot for the 14th time in a row, as the UN Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced in Geneva on Thursday. And the top 3 countries remain the same as last year. Behind them, Singapore has overtaken the UK and moved up to 4th place.
Switzerland's most important trading partner, Germany, dropped one place to 9th place, just making it into the top 10, with Angola at the bottom of the ranking of 133 countries.
The index takes 78 criteria into account. These include the business environment, education and research, investment and creativity, for example in industrial design.
Switzerland top in several categories
According to the Wipo report, Switzerland continues to occupy the top position in innovation output. Switzerland also achieved first place in knowledge and technology output. Our country holds the top positions for cooperation between universities and industrial companies in the area of research and development, for expenditure and income for intellectual property and for patents.
Switzerland is also among the top 5 in all other criteria, with the exception of infrastructure, which only achieved 7th place. The gap between IT and telecoms is huge. While Switzerland occupies the top spot for ICT access, it is only ranked 36th for ICT usage.
Slump in venture capital
The leading indicators for future innovation activities have weakened significantly worldwide, the Wipo authors wrote. Growth in spending on research and development slowed, for example. In 2023, fewer international patents were registered than in the previous year for the first time since 2009.
After the boom in 2020/21, venture capital investments fell by 36% in 2022 and by a further 39% in 2023. The authors attribute this to higher interest rates, among other things. In contrast, many companies rethought their growth strategies during the 2020/21 pandemic and many countries invested in digitalization.
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